UK travellers flock to hidden-gem staycations as demand rises
Britons are choosing cheaper, quieter breaks at home, with 75% planning a UK overnight trip and Airbnb searches tilting toward sub-£200 hidden gems.
UK travellers are leaning harder into domestic breaks, and the numbers point to more than a passing mood shift. VisitBritain’s March 2026 sentiment tracker found 75% of UK adults intended to take a UK overnight trip in the next 12 months, compared with 58% planning an overseas overnight trip, while 36% said they preferred the UK over overseas for the year ahead.
That appetite for closer-to-home travel is pushing demand toward quieter places that can offer space, value and a different pace. Booking.com’s hidden-gems campaign has steered travellers away from crowded favourites such as Blackpool, Brighton, the Norfolk Broads and Inverness, pointing instead to Lytham St Annes, Hastings, Tattershall in Lincolnshire and Pitlochry. The message is clear: the UK staycation market is no longer just about convenience, but about swapping the obvious for the less obvious.
Airbnb has detected the same pattern in its 2026 Dupe-It List, saying UK search data shows travellers increasingly looking for lesser-known destinations that still deliver culture, scenery and experiences at lower prices. The stays on the list are all under £200 a night, and Airbnb says the #traveldupe trend has drawn more than 5.9 million TikTok views, a sign that bargain-hunting and discovery are now reinforcing each other online.
The shift matters because domestic tourism remains a major economic engine. VisitBritain said Britain residents took 27 million overnight trips in England in Q3 2025, while day visits reached 286 million. Total domestic tourism spend hit £25.2 billion in the quarter, with overnight-trip spend rising 5% to £9.6 billion and day-visit spend climbing 15% to £15.6 billion. Average spend per overnight trip increased 8% to £356, showing that even as travellers look for value, they are still spending.
The geography of that spending is changing too. VisitBritain said large towns and cities increased their share of overnight trips in Q3 2025, while seaside destinations lost ground. Over the full year, 2024 domestic overnight trips in England were down 10% from 2023, but overnight spend still rose 5%, and large towns and cities accounted for 46% of overnight-trip share, up from 45% in 2023 and 44% in 2022.
Families are reshaping the market as well. Airbnb said in July 2025 that rural-area family bookings in the UK were up nearly 60% between 2019 and 2024, and cited a Verian survey showing 43% of British families had given up on big-city trips with children because of accommodation costs and a lack of family-friendly stays. With English Tourism Week 2026 running from 13 to 22 March, the industry’s domestic pitch has become as much about economics as escape, with hidden-gem breaks now serving as a pressure valve for cost-conscious travellers.
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