The headline figure for British holidays at home in 2025 looks, at first glance, like a boom. Residents of Great Britain spent £35.1 billion on domestic overnight trips, up 7% on 2024, according to the Great Britain Tourism Survey published by VisitBritain on 11 June 2026. But the same survey puts a check on that reading: overnight trips fell 2%, to 103 million, and nights fell 2% as well, to 301.2 million. Britons did not take more UK holidays in 2025. They took slightly fewer — and paid more for each one.
In England, the pattern was the same: 87 million overnight trips in 2025, down 3% on 2024, while spending rose 6% to £29 billion. Total domestic tourism spending in England reached £78 billion, up 3%. Day visits rose 2% to 928 million, with spending up 1% to £49 billion. The average overnight trip cost £333 per person, up 9%; a holiday trip cost £386, up 7%.
Shorter, more frequent, booked later
The clearest change comes from Sykes Holiday Cottages, one of the largest cottage operators in the UK, in its Staycation Index 2026, published on 29 May 2026 and based on bookings across 25,000 properties and a OnePoll survey of 2,000 UK adults in April 2026. Just over half of its 2025 bookings — 51% — were short breaks of six days or fewer, Britons took an average of three UK trips a year, the average lead time was around 101 days, and 31% of trips were booked within a month of departure.
That is a different holiday from the single two-week break that used to define the British summer. Sykes found 23% of Britons were opting for cheaper destinations, rising to 30% among Gen Z and 33% among Millennials, and one in five was opting for a UK break instead of travelling abroad.
Sykes reported that 64% of Britons were planning a UK break in 2026, and 38% were planning to make it their main holiday — up from 34% in its 2025 index. More than a quarter, 28%, said they were more likely to holiday at home in 2026 than in 2025. The shift was sharpest among younger travellers: 53% of 18- to 28-year-olds planned to take their main holiday in the UK, and 72% planned a UK trip of some kind.
James Shaw, chief commercial officer at Sykes Holiday Cottages, said: "The continued popularity of UK breaks demonstrates that staycations remain a key part of how Brits holiday. More people are choosing to stay at home and prioritising value, flexibility and reassurance when planning time away." Sykes' 2025 index put expected spend at £1,292 on a main UK break in 2025, up from £1,070 in 2024.
Where the bookings actually went
Sykes' ten most popular locations in 2026 were headed by St Ives in Cornwall, followed by Bamburgh in Northumberland, Ambleside and Grasmere in the Lake District, Robin Hood's Bay in North Yorkshire, Brighton, Lyme Regis in Dorset, Bakewell in the Peak District, Salcombe in Devon and Bourton-on-the-Water in the Cotswolds. Coastal destinations remained the most sought-after type of place, chosen by 65%, ahead of rural areas at 56% and national parks at 38%.
The fastest-growing places were smaller ones. Boroughbridge in North Yorkshire saw bookings rise 125% year on year, Cromer in Norfolk rose 46% and Teignmouth in Devon rose 36%, according to Sykes' 2026 trending list, which also included Praa Sands and Hayle in Cornwall, Aberystwyth and Beddgelert in Wales, and Oban in Scotland.
The national survey shows the same shift. In 2025, large towns and cities increased their share of overnight trips in England to 51%, while the seaside's share declined. The South West's share fell to 15% in 2025, from 18% in 2022 and 2023. Hotels accounted for 40% of overnight stays, up from 35–36% in previous years.
The summer that tested the trend
The summer of 2026 gave the staycation its sharpest test. Sykes said its summer bookings were 5% higher than a year earlier. Barclays' card-spending data for July 2026, reported on 11 August 2026, showed overall travel spending down 0.3% year on year, with airline spending down 6%, while spending on hotels, resorts and accommodation rose 2.6% and spending through travel agents rose 2.5%. Barclays said the pattern suggested holidaymakers were continuing to prioritise UK staycations over trips abroad. Rohan Kumar, Barclays' head of spend insights, said card spending in July had reached its highest level for 12 months.
Those July figures need care: Barclays' merchant categories do not label every transaction as domestic or overseas, so a 2.6% rise in hotel spending is not a direct measure of UK hotel revenue. VisitBritain's card-spending report for the second quarter of 2026, published in August 2026, was more cautious: domestic overnight tourism card spending fell 2% year on year in the quarter in real terms, overnight trips were broadly level with a year earlier, and hotel occupancy in England in June 2026 declined slightly.
What is holding people back
In VisitBritain's Domestic Sentiment Tracker for October 2026, published on 22 October 2026, 76% of UK adults said they intended to take a domestic overnight trip at some point in the next 12 months, down two percentage points from 78% in September and broadly in line with October 2025. The top barriers to an overnight domestic trip in the next six months were the UK weather, cited by 33%, the rising cost of living at 32% and the rising costs of holidays and leisure at 29%.
That is the honest limit on the staycation story. Spending per trip rose 9% in 2025 while the number of trips fell: people are still going, but they are paying more to do it.
Two groups are bucking that squeeze. Solo bookings were up 25% year on year in 2025, the fastest-growing type of trip in Sykes' 2026 index. And 27% of Sykes' 2025 bookings included a pet, one reason the cottage and caravan market — where a dog can come too, without kennel fees — has held up.
The shoulder season is where the shift shows
The clearest practical consequence is the rise of the shoulder season — the weeks either side of the summer peak. Sykes' 2026 index found bookings up year on year in January by 12% and in October by 11% in 2025, as travellers looked to avoid peak prices and crowds, and April bookings up 15% year on year. August remained the most popular month, followed by May and July, but May has risen sharply since 2023. For families tied to school holidays it is not always an option. For everyone else, it is where the 2026 market is moving, and where the saving is most likely to be real rather than promised.
The next check will come from VisitBritain's Domestic Sentiment Tracker for November 2026, due on 19 November 2026, which will show whether the October dip in intentions to 76% was a pause or the start of a slide — and whether the weather and the cost of living, the two barriers named by a third of adults, are still deciding where Britons spend their holidays.