FIFTY eight per cent of UK consumers will be influenced by the economic downturn when it comes to choosing their holidays for 2009, a survey has revealed.
Most likely to be affected are people aged between 16 to 25 and living in the south west and Wales, according to the findings from the industry research firm TripVision.
The indications are that people still plan to go on holiday, although their choice of destination is likely to be influenced by the economic climate.
The poll indicated that more were likely to consider shorter haul destinations such as Spain, Italy and France over the US, and they would also probably consider a shorter duration holiday and opt for self-catering.
The research found that showed a rise in people choosing package holidays over independent travel arrangements, and there was also a big drop in people paying attention to green issues, down to 36 per cent from 43 per cent a year ago.
A small rise in the percentage of people worried about terrorism was registered, up to 17 per cent last month from 15 per cent in October last year.
Marketing and operations director of TripVision  Jeff Rhys-Jones said, “The future intention to travel has gone down by one per cent which is not a huge drop, which suggests that people are still planning to go on holiday.  
“I don’t think the travel industry as a whole is going to be a loser. While there will be more company failures, the really savvy ones will be putting forward products to consumers that they want to buy.”