Intent to travel surges following scrapping of holiday test requirements

The latest research by hotel booking platform, hoo, has provided further proof that foreign holidays could be back on the cards in 2022, as the removal of testing requirements for UK holidaymakers boosts positive sentiment to its highest point in the last year.

hoo’s Intent to Travel Index has been monitoring UK holidaymaker sentiment since January 2021 and the latest index shows that our intent to travel is at its highest point in the last year – up 8% month on month and 20% annually.

The previous index carried out in December revealed that just a quarter of holidaymakers planned to book a holiday overseas within the next year, as the spread of Omicron brought a fresh wave of pandemic uncertainty to the UK travel sector.

However, hoo’s latest index shows that this has since climbed to 32%, following the UK government’s moves to scrap all testing requirements for UK holidaymakers.

This increase is no doubt partly due to the considerable cost saving now that we no longer have to fork out for travel testing.

hoo’s research shows that in August last year, a holiday to Spain (Madrid) cost an average of £384 for a week’s holiday.

However, a further £91 was required for fully vaccinated travellers to cover the cost of a rapid antigen test in order to return home, as well as a day two PCR after arrival, at a total cost of £475.

With the same holiday now costing an average of £351 for the week, the removal of UK travel test requirements has reduced the cost of this trip by -26%.

hoo Co-founder, Adrian Murdock, commented:

“It’s still too early to say for sure, but it does appear as though the dark clouds of pandemic uncertainty that have been hanging over the UK travel sector are starting to clear for good.

The removal of travel testing has certainly helped and we should now see a notable increase in the number of us choosing to holiday abroad in the coming year.

This is largely due to the cost factor as the average family will now save a considerable sum of money and there’s no doubt that this additional financial hurdle was preventing many from travelling previously.

Of course, there may well be testing requirements in order to enter your holiday destination of choice, so make sure you are aware of these and the costs involved before booking to avoid any potential disappointment.”