Travel agents continued to see strong levels of spending in September ahead of many other sectors, new figures show.<\/p>\n
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The overall travel category saw marginal annual growth in spending of 0.8% in September, below August\u2019s 3.1%, according to Barclays monthly consumer card spend data.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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Within this, travel agents saw the strongest performance, up 4.2% year on year with the level of transactions up by 18.1%.<\/p>\n
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However, spending with airlines (down 4.3%) declined for the first time in more than four years with transaction levels down by 8.6%.<\/p>\n
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Hotel spending (down 2.2%) dipped for the first time since July 2024.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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Barclays also released the findings of latest consumer research, saying: \u201cLooking ahead, 38% of those planning to cut non-essential spending say they will spend less on holidays abroad.\u201d<\/p>\n
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This came despite consumers\u2019 confidence in their ability to live within their means reaching its highest level in more than four years, at 78%.<\/p>\n
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Meanwhile, confidence in household finances climbed to 74% \u2013 a seven-month high.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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Almost half of UK adults (44%) say they are making changes to their personal finances in anticipation of November\u2019s autumn Budget, with a third (35%) of this group building a savings buffer, the bank\u2019s survey found.<\/p>\n
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Barclays head of retail Karen Johnson said: \u201cIt is encouraging to see that UK consumers feel confident in their ability to manage their budgets, amid ongoing cost of living concerns.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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\u201cWe\u2019re continuing to see cautious spending, and shoppers are consistently seeking out areas they can cut back on.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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\u201cHowever, multiple retail categories have proven to be resilient in recent months, with furniture, clothing, and beauty all remaining in growth since February of this year.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n Julien Lafargue, chief market strategist, Barclays Private Bank and Wealth Management, added:\u00a0<\/strong>\u201cAlthough spending habits keep evolving, the UK consumer remains resilient in the face of an uncertain macroeconomic backdrop.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n “With wage growth continuing to outpace inflation, there is room for spending to accelerate again when visibility improves.\u201d<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Travel agents continued to see strong levels of spending in September ahead of many other sectors, new figures…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":498982,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3090],"tags":[51,1700,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-498981","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-economy","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-economy","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115372968581965563","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/498981","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=498981"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/498981\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/498982"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=498981"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=498981"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=498981"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}