Brits tipped to spend £97.3bn on holidays in 2006

Holidaymakers from the UK will spend a collective £97.3 billion on trips away in 2006.

A research from Axa Insurance disclosed that over half of people (53 percent) will take between one and three breaks, while 2.1 million UK residents expect to go away more than five times.

As per the information available, booking the holiday itself accounts the largest part of this total spend - at £45 billion - followed by spending money while abroad (£29 billion). After these major costs, clothes (£7 billion), excursions (£4.4 billion), and travel insurance (£4.2 billion) are the next largest expenses.

“With so much being spent on holidays and travelling abroad, it is now more important than ever to have travel insurance,” said Nick Kidd, of AXA Insurance. “However, in the excitement of booking a trip many people forget to buy their cover or wrongly assume that they don’t need it. The reality is you don’t know what could happen to you whilst on holiday and travel insurance is therefore as important as taking your passport or toothbrush.”

The UK and Ireland were found to be the most popular holiday locations, with 68 percent of people planning to holiday here. Some 37 percent of people intend to go to Spain, the Balearic or the Canary Islands and 25 percent will be heading for France.