Londoners suspicious of pay monthly schemes; Midlanders resist paying out right for holidays: Manchester, East Midlands and Birmingham prefer to pay monthly; Holidaymakers spend up to £200 more when they spread the payment of holidays.
Mancunians and Midlanders are far more thrifty than Londoners, reveals research by leading online travel agent loveholidays.com in the wake of a report by The Economist this week highlighting significant socio-economic disparity across the country. A review of its brand new scheme to enable customers to pay monthly for holidays exposes how Britons’ spending habits vary significantly dependent on their postcode.
The research found passengers flying from Manchester Airport, East Midlands and Birmingham airports were more likely to spread the cost of their trip with approximately 30% of travellers choosing this option.
Conversely, passengers travelling from Gatwick Airport, London Stansted and Bournemouth pay out right with approximately 50% fewer passengers opting for the new scheme.
CEO and founder of loveholidays.com, Alex Francis, commented: “Following this week’s socio-economic report in The Economist, we’re eager to understand in more depth how the economy impacts travel spending patterns across the country.”
Francis continued: “According to the Office of National Statistics, Londoners earn an average of £650 per week, while in the north east its closer to £450. That’s a huge gap even taking into account different living costs around the UK.”
”We believe those living in the south of England may be more suspicious about finance schemes, perhaps because they believe – mistakenly in our case – that they’ll end up paying more overall if they chose to pay monthly: our programme is interest free with no extra or hidden charges.”
If anything the holiday will end up being cheaper as the earlier customers book, the lower the overall holiday price, added Francis.
“Those who use the pay monthly scheme are spending up to £200 more on a holiday, with an average spend of £1,600 per booking. This could be because spreading the cost and also taking advantage of the low deposits we have available then allows holidaymakers to spend that little extra on their dream trip as they can make household budgets accordingly” concludes Francis.
Theodore is the Co-Founder and Managing Editor of TravelDailyNews Media Network; his responsibilities include business development and planning for TravelDailyNews long-term opportunities.
