From annual sunshine breaks in the Med to extraordinary round-the-world trips, millions of UK holidaymakers have enjoyed an overseas break with an ABTA member since the travel association launched 75 years ago.

How travel has changed

Holidays have changed considerably since ABTA’s inception, with most people taking domestic breaks, often at a seaside resort in the UK, in the 1950s.

Data from the Office for National Statistics’ International Passenger Survey, which began in 1961, shows trips abroad since then have surged by more than 2,500%. While UK residents took just 3.3 million trips in 1961, this rose to 86.2m according to their latest data set in 2023².

Reasons are many, and include the growth in package holiday options, the introduction of low-cost carriers and the birth of the internet.

When package holidays first became popular, many ABTA experts listed the Balearics, Italian Riviera, Belgium, Austria, Switzerland and Germany as their most booked destinations.

Nowadays, while Europe remains the top choice for overseas trips, visited by 83% of UK travellers according to ABTA’s latest Holiday Habits report, the top 15 most visited destinations also included the USA (4th), Mexico (11th) and Australia (13th)³.

Supporting holidaymakers for 75 years

Established in the summer of 1950, ABTA was created to agree a set of standards for the businesses involved in the emerging world of international travel. Since then, ABTA has helped its members to run successful businesses while also being a constant source of advice, guidance and support for the travelling public. To this day, the ABTA Code of Conduct sets a framework for all members to act and trade responsibly and ‘do the right thing’ by customers.

ABTA helped with the industry’s first significant failure in July 1964 when the collapse of Fiesta Tours, a non-ABTA member, left around 2,000 holidaymakers stranded. In response, ABTA set up the first fund to repatriate customers in the event of a failure, and underlined the importance to customers of their holiday bookings being financially protected.

More recently, the association handled more than 1,400 customer claims following the failure of the original Thomas Cook in 2019. These started to be paid within the first seven days of the company’s collapse.

ABTA also stepped up its advice for holidaymakers during the Covid-19 crisis, by developing a hub of information on ABTA.com to set out everything people needed to know about refunds, the latest travel requirements and future bookings which was viewed more than 1.3 million times in 2020 alone.

¹ 88% of the UK public who have heard of ABTA say they are more likely to book with an ABTA member than a company that is not. Source: The Nursery, independent research of around 1,000 people, March 2025
² A news release issued by the Office for National Statistics in July 2011 shows UK residents took 3.3 million visits abroad in 1961 – more information via this link: webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk 
An ONS Travel Trends report released in May 2024 shows the total number of visits abroad each year made by UK residents from 1980 to 2023: Travel trends estimates: overseas residents in the UK and UK residents abroad - Office for National Statistics
³ According to ABTA’s Holiday Habits 2024-25 report, in the 12 months to July 2024, the USA was the UK’s 4th most popular destination, the UAE was 10th, Mexico was 11th, and Australia was 13th: Holiday Habits 2024-25 | ABTA. The report draws on research from a nationally representative sample of 2,000 UK adults and was carried out from 24 July to 2 August 2024 by The Nursery Research and Planning.