Credit crunch 'will not stop people travelling'

A partner with one of the world's leading professional services firms has said that the credit crunch will not prevent consumers from taking holidays.

Speaking at the Association of British Travel Agents (Abta) convention in Gran Canaria, Malcolm Preston of PricewaterhouseCoopers (PWC) said that many other things are likely to be sacrificed before holidays, TravelMole reports.

He referred to a survey that asked people to name the first and second things they would stop spending on to save money. The aggregated answers showed that only a single-figure percentage would cut back on holidays, placing travel far down the list of luxuries consumers are willing to sacrifice.

Mr Preston said: "There are many things that will go before that, which backs up our feeling that the industry is pretty resilient."

The PWC partner likened the economy to a grand prix and said that the slowdown is a pit stop, adding that the important thing to achieve from a pit stop is to "emerge stronger".

Abta recently carried out a survey of regular holidaymakers which found that 83 per cent plan to take another overseas trip within the next 12 months.

Mr Preston referred to figures showing that 12 per cent of the holiday market for summer 2009 is already sold.

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