Holiday Makers Struggle to Budget

May 2007

Many people who head abroad on a summer holiday will either not make - or fail to stick to - a budget, research reveals.

According to the Post Office Travel Services, a third of holidaymakers travelling overseas this summer will not have any budget in mind when they get on the plane.

A further 48 per cent of people said that they will have a budget in mind but will exceed it during their trip.

"If you do not have unlimited funds at your disposal - and not many of us do - it makes sense to set a spending limit, even when on holiday," explained Kevin McAdam, the company's head of travel. "However, these figures prove that surprisingly few people do so."

The Post Office's research also found that men are 50 per cent more likely not to set a budget when going on holiday and travellers from the north-west of the UK are most likely to spend whatever they feel like when away.

In contrast, south-eastern travellers tend to stick to their budgets.

Figures from the Office for National Statistics released earlier this month showed that the number of foreign visits made by Britons in the year to March increased by three per cent to 68.6 million.