By Hills Balfour, the London office of MMGY Global 

New research study Portrait of UK Travellers™ shows that Millennials will drive overall tourism growth for 2019 and have the most positive outlook on Brexit’s impact on travel 

Findings also reveal what influence children have on holiday decisions; which generation is most likely to travel overseas; and the impact of social media on holiday decisions

Adult travellers aged under 40 intend to take 41 percent more holidays in 2019 (an extra two holidays per year on average) and additionally ramp up their holiday spend by 20% in the next 12 months, according to a new study.

Portrait of UK Travellers™ is compiled by MMGY Global, the world’s largest integrated tourism marketing organisation, and looks at the holiday motivations, preferences and behaviours of the 13.4 million travelling households in the UK. Research was carried out in January and February 2019.

Over 2,000 active leisure travellers participated in a 25-minute online survey and their responses were analysed across three generational bands – Millennials (aged 18-39 in 2018); Xers (aged 40-53 in 2018) and Boomers (aged 54-72 in 2018).

Some of the behaviours most prominent amongst Millennial respondents followed logic – for instance that they are far more vested in social media than their older counterparts – but other, more surprising, results were also revealed. For instance:

• Whilst only one in ten Millennials had taken a cruise holiday in the past year, more than half expressed an interest in going on a cruise in the next two years – the strongest level of intent across any of the age…