New research has identified the most frustrating aspects of international travel – and also found that millions more Brits are choosing to holiday in the UK.

Airport waiting times are the most annoying part of going on holiday, according to the survey, conducted for Parkdean Resorts. 69% of Brits are annoyed by how much time they spend at airports, with the overall cost of the holiday (52%), baggage restrictions (48%), overall travel time (46%) and the cost of airport parking (42%) the other top sources of irritation.

As frustrations with air travel take their toll, the staycation market is booming, and the research reveals that almost half the population are taking more domestic holidays than they did in previous years. With 44% of Brits taking more UK holidays than in previous years, and only 23% taking fewer, Parkdean Resorts estimates that 14.2m more British holidaymakers could visit UK destinations this year, providing a major boost for the UK economy, and particularly local economies which rely on tourism.

Xavier Vallee, Chief Customer Officer, Parkdean Resorts, said: “On the face of it, an overseas holiday can seem very appealing, but the frustrations of international travel are causing people to question if it’s worth the hassle. People have a laundry list of frustrations, many of which just don’t exist when you holiday in the UK.”

Commenting on the increase in British people taking UK holidays, Xavier added: “Families have fallen back in love with a British summer holiday, returning to familiar destinations or discovering beautiful parts of the country they’d never been to before. Not only do these summer holidays create amazing memories for families, they create great opportunities for local economies in coastal and rural locations which are so heavily reliant on tourism, so it’s really positive news.”

Although security worker strikes at Heathrow have been averted, the average holidaymaker will spend at least 5 hours in the airport for every overseas holiday they go on¹. Three quarters (76%) of people from the South West have problems with airport waiting times, while people form the South East are the most relaxed about the amount of time they have to wait before flying (62%). West Midlanders were also relatively relaxed (63%), despite Birmingham Airport’s unenviable record of being named the worst British airport for delays two years in a row by the Civil Aviation Authority.

With rising interest rates putting an even greater squeeze on household spending, it’s no surprise that the overall cost of holidays is the second biggest issue for Brits. With the lowest median earnings in the UK², people in the North East are most likely to feel the pinch, with six in ten (60%) annoyed by the cost of a holiday. Surprisingly, though, people from the North East are second only to Londoners when it comes to taking multiple holidays abroad, with 36% taking two or more holidays a year (41% for Greater London) and 14% taking three or more (15% for Greater London).

Baggage restrictions are a much bigger issue for Londoners than for anybody else. Almost two-thirds of Londoners (64%) identified baggage restrictions as a frustration, compared to less than half (48%) nationally, and just 40% of people from Yorkshire.

Symbolic of the rising concern about individuals’ carbon footprints, almost one in five (17%) consumers identified the environmental impact of going on holiday as a problem, although there are varying levels of concern across the country as people in the South West (29%) are more than twice as concerned as those in Yorkshire (12%), the North West (13%) or the West Midlands (13%).

Parkdean Resorts, the UK’s leading holiday park operator, has 66 parks in some of the UK’s finest beauty spots. 7 nights in the school summer holidays for a family of four starts at £399.

¹Check-in typically opens 3 hours before long-haul flights, and 2 – 2½ hours before short-haul flights.

²Regional and National Economic Indicators, 23rd June 2023.