Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee
13 October 2026
Contents updated on 13 Oct 2026
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Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee House of Commons
Follow its sittings00:03 - 00:47
Order, order. Welcome to this meeting of the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee. Today we have our first session of our inquiry into tourism. And we hear from our first panel, from Chris Haslam, who is the chief writer, chief travel writer of the Sunday Times, and Vicky Philpott, also known as Vicky FlipFlop, who is a travel blogger and content creator. You're both very welcome.
Thank you so much for joining us today. Before we begin, can I remind members to declare any interests at the point that you ask your questions? But I'm going to kick us off, chaps. Can I just start with both of you? Chris, let's start with you.
Do you think that tourists' expectations and priorities have changed very much in recent years?
00:47 - 00:52
Speaker 6
Generally speaking, you mean all kinds of tourists, globally, just to the UK?
00:52 - 00:53
The UK.
00:53 - 02:39
Chris Haslam
Chief Travel Writer, The Sunday Times
Habits have changed in that we've seen, the 14-day, the 14-night holiday is a thing of the past. The average length of holiday now is about 9.6 days. We're seeing people trading down. Ever since 2021, when tourism peaked post-pandemic, it's been falling away in terms of expenditure and in terms of duration as well. So we're seeing people trading down for either spending less time in destinations or less time and staying in cheaper properties in destinations.
We've seen a move away across Europe and in the UK of moving away from traditional accommodation, hotels, guest houses, B&Bs, into short-term rentals, known as STRs, your Airbnb-type thing. That now, within a very short time, that has grown to take probably 20, 25% of the market. So hotels and traditional accommodation is now around 40 to 45%. What, let me think, what, let me just look at my notes and tell you what else has changed in the past few years. I've said downsizing, I've said shifting away.
Funny enough, this is something that's across Europe now, which gives you a real indication of how tight spending is, how little disposable income people have. It's not just the UK, I heard it in Spain as well. People self-catering in hotels. Cleaning staff going into hotel rooms and finding supermarket bags in there. In the UK and in Spain, and I heard about it last week in Switzerland as well.
02:39 - 02:57
Speaker 4
So the general indication is there's much less money around, but people, particularly the British, will always put, I mean the joke is they'll put a holiday before a kidney replacement. They will always prioritize travel, but they're having to cut their cloth to suit their budget.
02:57 - 03:15
And Vicky, what are you seeing? Are you noticing that people's priorities for their travel are changing? I mean, do they prioritize experiences over destinations, or what are people prioritizing when they go on their holiday?