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Holidays are recession-proof
Picture: Worrying about money
It's hard enough being self-employed not knowing when the next contract is coming from, but when you add the never-ending recession (that's how it feels to me), and the drop in marketing expenditure, it is not surprising that my every waking moment is worrying about making ends meet, so I can still travel abroad.
That's right you read right, travel.
I make no apologies! Travel is my vice, after all I have no children, no car and no mortgage, although I do pay rent. I like to travel abroad, and within the UK, as often as possible and with lots of variety. This has been my life for years, a life of penny pinching, keeping fit outdoors, home-cooking, use of discount vouchers and shopping in outlet malls and TK Maxx, before it became "Recession-Chic", if I had the time i would write about about living the stylish Recession-Chic life.
But I don't because, I am spending the gains from this life of watching the pennies, to spend my free time researching travel websites hunting down the best deals. Fortunately, due to the way I work, short contracts, I am often free to travel off-season, and happy to travel alone.
Picture: Searching for travel deals.
The people speak
But before you get on your high horse and lambaste me for flaunting my travellers lifestyle, let me tell you I am not alone. According to recent research by ABTA - The Travel Association, when asked what luxuries they would consider scarifying,
"... 35 per cent of people questioned said a holiday would be the last thing to go."
It seems, like me, more people prefer to cut back on eating out, home improvements and even trips to the cinema rather than not have a holiday.
The poll also showed that women are more attached to their annual break than men, with 38 per cent saying a holiday would be the last thing they cut back on - compared to 35 per cent of men.
All about the protection!
But don't be fooled we are still cautious and concerned about money and the economic climate, with eight in 10 consumers saying financial protection for their holiday is essential or important when booking. This concern manifests itself in increased desire for financial protection, i.e ATOL and ABTA membership.
"The importance of guarding against financial loss follows recent concerns such as the ash cloud crisis and the heavy snow that blanketed parts of the UK last December. Both caused huge problems for travellers in the last two years, and hit the travel sector hard."
So far this year, I managed to eek out a bank holiday weekend in Amsterdam, staying with a friend made it affordable; and now I am planning a week long trip to Italy, flying budget airlines, travelling within Italy by train and sharing the accommodation costs with two friends.
So are you like me and the others in the survey, making lots of scarifices so you can travel? What are your money-saving travel tips? Or is travel not that important to you?
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