LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM — (Marketwire) — 10/20/11 — Over half of the UK won-t be flying away for the next holiday season, with almost 1 in 2 people not going on holiday, struggling to afford a trip abroad. Survey results on behalf of Asda Financial Services(1) details the current UK holiday habits, showing the reduction of quotes during key seasonal periods.
One in two of those not going on holiday revealed they would be staying at home because they simply couldn-t afford to take a holiday. Fears of losing their job and worries about their future financial situation prevented a further 7% of people taking a trip – despite being able to afford to.
Even for those that do make it away, almost half will be staying in the UK. And it seems exotic trips to gorgeous shores are a far-away thought as 80% are opting for short-haul destinations by staying in Europe.
No-one will be reckless though when it comes to holiday sun; everyone surveyed said that sunscreen was their number one holiday purchase. Three-quarters saw sunglasses as their second most important buy, and one in two (50%) plan to pick up a good read before jetting off on their holidays. Gadgets also proved to be a popular choice to pack, including items such as the Nintendo DS.
Jazz Sandhu from Asda Financial Services comments: “While customers may be spending less on their holiday this year, it-s important to still ensure they have the right travel insurance in place. With Asda Travel Insurance many customers can keep their costs down whilst choosing the cover that-s right for them.”
For further information about Asda-s Financial Services offering please visit .
Notes to editors
(i) Data gathered from two surveys carried out by eDigital Research on behalf of in June 2011, with the data generated on 2nd September 2011.
Other key findings were:
About Asda Travel Insurance
Asda Travel Insurance is sold and underwritten by ACE European Group Ltd, a leading global insurer protecting over 7 million people in the UK.
Asda Financial Services Ltd is an Introducer Appointed Representative of ACE European Group Ltd. This means that Asda Travel Insurance policies are sold, administered and underwritten by ACE European Group Ltd who is Authorised and Regulated by the Financial Services Authority (FSA), reference number FRN 202803. Full details can be found on the FSA-s Register by visiting or by contacting the FSA on 0845 606 1234.
About Asda Stores Ltd.
Founded in the 1960s, Asda today is one of Britain-s leading retailers. It has over 170,000 dedicated Asda colleagues serving customers from 424 stores, including 25 ASDA Living stores, 23 depots and eight recycling centres across the UK (Great Britain and Northern Ireland). It has its main home office in Leeds, Yorkshire and its George clothing division based in Lutterworth Leicestershire. Asda serves over 18 million shoppers a week in store and its growing home shopping business.
About Chosen By You
Chosen By You is an unprecedented re-launch of Asda-s entire mid-tier own brand range, consisting of over 6,923 products. The launch follows an intense period of quality benchmarking and independent customer taste testing, which means Asda customers are given the very best in terms of quality and value. Every single one of the products has been tested by real customers up and down the country at 836 locations – and only those that get a big thumbs up make it into the range. Chosen By You has rolled out into Free From products and 4,250 tests have been conducted with the help from Coeliac sufferers. Asda have already conducted more than 370,000 blind taste tests involving 63,714 customers, making this the biggest piece of product testing ever done by a supermarket.
About Asda-s Price Guarantee
With Asda-s Price Guarantee customers can be safe in the knowledge that the price they pay at Asda is cheaper than at Tesco, Sainsbury-s, Morrisons and Waitrose, otherwise we will refund the difference.
(1) Survey commissioned by Digital Research on behalf of Asda
Contacts:
Asda Financial Services
02070821194