British visitors avoid popular destinations that have been attacked by terrorists, is the main conclusion of a study by the Office for National Statistics on the habits of British tourists as they have changed from 1996 to 2016.
A prime example of this is Tunisia, where 30 Britons were killed in an attack on the beach in Susa in 2015. Of the 221.000 visits in 1996, Tunisia welcomed just 2.200 Britons last year, a drop of almost 90%.
A similar picture is recorded in Egypt (47.000 visits in '16 from 186.000 20 years ago), Turkey (from 954.000 visits in 1996 to only 729.000 last year), Kenya and Belgium.
Even in France, the second most popular destination for Britons after Spain, visits have dropped from 6 million two decades ago to 5,6 million last year.
The big winner is Spain, which has almost doubled the reception of British tourists, from 6,9 to 12,9 million.
Close by is Italy, which last year welcomed 2,8 million Britons from 1 million in 1996.
In Greece, the number of British visitors increased last year to 2,219 million from 1,338 million in '96.
No specific data on Cyprus have been made public.
Also, countries that were almost non-existent on the British tourist map 20 years ago, have made a dynamic appearance in recent years: the United Arab Emirates (mainly Dubai), Poland, Romania, Ireland and primarily Croatia, which out of 12,5 thousand Britons In 1996, it hosted almost 400.000 Britons.
In total, in 2016 the British made 45 million trips abroad, an increase of 68% compared to 1996.
Another key finding of the study is that Britons now prefer to take many shorter breaks instead of the one break they used to take two decades ago.
Low-cost airlines have played an important role in this change of habit, which favors European destinations.
Source: Sigmalive