Three in five people confident about travelling abroad, according to survey

A poll of 2,000 UK adults commissioned by travel organisation Abta suggested 30% are extremely confident, while 31% are somewhat confident.

A poll commissioned by Abta found more than three in five people are confident about travelling (Liam McBurney/PA) (PA Wire)

More than three out of five people feel confident about travelling overseas, a new survey suggests.

The poll of 2,000 UK adults commissioned by travel trade organisation Abta suggested 30% are extremely confident about going abroad, while 31% are somewhat confident.

That is compared with 9% being less confident, and 11% not at all confident.

Some 19% of respondents were neutral.

The survey suggested people aged 25-34 are the most confident travellers, while those aged 65 and above are the least.

Among the factors most likely to give people confidence to travel abroad are knowing they have the correct documents such as a valid passport or visa, taking out travel insurance, and being able to get home if the travel company goes bust, the poll indicated.

Abta described the outcome of the survey as “a positive result” given issues such as air traffic control provider Nats suffering disruption, the cost of living crisis, and wildfires in some popular destinations this summer.

It has used the figures to create a travel confidence index score of +41, based on the combined percentage figures for those who are confident, minus the total for those either not confident or less confident.

Given the extreme heat and wildfires in some holiday destinations this year, and that the Nats outage happened... a score of +41 does show some remarkable positivity among the UK population

Graeme Buck, Abta

The research will be updated each year.

Abta released the results ahead of its annual travel convention which begins in Bodrum, Turkey, on Tuesday.

The organisation’s director of communications Graeme Buck said: “We plan to provide an annual measure of how confident people are feeling about overseas travel and why, so the industry can capitalise on positive sentiment.

“Given the extreme heat and wildfires in some holiday destinations this year, and that the Nats outage happened during the period in which we interviewed respondents, a score of +41 does show some remarkable positivity among the UK population.

“We’ll be continuing to support our members’ efforts to boost their customers’ confidence however we can.”

The survey was conducted by research company The Nursery in the last two weeks of August.

It was a representative sample weighted to reflect the UK population.