Travel agency polls over 3,000 Britons on holiday friendship habits.
LONDON, UK – This week, travel retailer Holiday Hypermarket revealed the findings of its Holiday Friendship survey, which polled 3345 British holidaymakers on the bonds they build while abroad.
The results show that Britons prefer to befriend other Brits, and very few people befriend couples with children.
Speaking of the tiny 3% who did make friends with families, marketing manager Ian Crawford said, “This was the most surprising figure for us. We expected to find that families are more open to socialising with one another, particularly as kids often play together no matter what nationality or background they come from. It suggests that families are more interested in spending quality time together on holiday than getting to know new people.”
Other findings include:
- 82.5% of holidaymakers said they had made friends while on their last holiday and only 13.8% said they had no intentions of meeting new people while away.
- Of all participants, 66.2% said they made friends with other British tourists, whereas 23% claimed to make friends with those working where they were staying.
- People were least likely to socialise with European tourists and local people (at 17.2% and 17.8% respectively)
- 65.9% of holidaymakers made friends with people of the same or similar age.
- Only 3% made friends with families who had children.
- 40.2% of friends who met on holiday added each other on social media, and 34.4% exchanged email addresses.
- While 31.5% of people have not spoken to the friends they made on holiday since returning home, a total of 46.5% still speak to their friends at least once a month.
These findings come just in time for International Friendship Day, which falls on the 30th July.
Theodore is the Co-Founder and Managing Editor of TravelDailyNews Media Network; his responsibilities include business development and planning for TravelDailyNews long-term opportunities.
