Spending on travel rebounded after five consecutive months of decline as consumer confidence remained \u201cresilient\u201d in August, new data shows.<\/p>\n
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Travel agents saw year on year card spend rise by 4.4% with transactions up by 7.4%, according to Barclays latest monthly consumer spend report. This compared with card outlay with agents of 2.5% in July after a 0.1% decline in June.<\/p>\n
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This came as 14% overall were actively looking for travel discounts, offers, and last-minute deals last month.<\/p>\n
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Airline spend grew for the first time since August 2025, up 3.5%, with a 1% rise in transactions.<\/p>\n
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Growth in overall travel spending reached 3.1% in August, its highest level year-to-date and a \u201cmarked improvement\u201d after five consecutive months of decline.<\/p>\n
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Separately, hotels, resorts and accommodation grew 3.5% as more holidaymakers opt for UK staycations over trips abroad in 2026, at 36% in comparison to 33%, Barclays reported. <\/p>\n
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Travel\u2019s strong performance contributed to a 3.3% boost for hospitality and leisure while retail spending increased 1.2%.<\/p>\n
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Total card spending grew by 2.1% year on year last month, building on a 2% increase in July, but remaining below the latest consumer inflation rate of 3.1%. <\/p>\n
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Both essential and non-essential spending increased 2.1%, helped by improving consumer confidence and the strong performance of hospitality and leisure.<\/p>\n
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This came as consumers\u2019 confidence in their household finances reached its highest level in six months, at 66% in August, up from 64% in July.<\/p>\n
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Consumers also reported feeling more confident in their ability to live within their means (71%, up from 69%) and spend on non-essentials (54%, up from 53%), the bank\u2019s research found.<\/p>\n
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Rohan Kumar, head of spend insights at Barclays, said:\u00a0\u201cCard spending continued to build momentum in August, reaching a 13 month-high, while consumer confidence showed signs of recovery. <\/p>\n
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\u201cGrowth in discretionary purchases and strong performances across travel, eating and drinking, and entertainments all contributed to a boost for hospitality and leisure, suggesting many finished summer by prioritising holidays, social occasions and memorable experiences, even as price and value concerns stayed firmly front of mind.\u201d<\/p>\n
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The bank\u2019s chief UK economist Jack Meaning added:\u00a0\u201cConsumer spending and confidence remained resilient in August, even as pressures from the Middle East began to filter into prices. <\/p>\n
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\u201cThis positive news suggests consumers should be able to weather the bout of narrowly focussed, temporary inflation we think is coming down the track. <\/p>\n
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\u201cHowever, this week has shown risk remains. If the situation in the Middle East persists or intensifies in the coming months, squeezed households may need to be even more discerning with their spend.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Spending on travel rebounded after five consecutive months of decline as consumer confidence remained \u201cresilient\u201d in August, new…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":763429,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[84,1294,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-763428","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-business","tag-economy","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/763428","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=763428"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/763428\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/763429"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=763428"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=763428"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=763428"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}