I was born
in Yorkshire. Summer holidays were short as I remember, a week
usually, and our standard destinations were close by - Scarborough,
Brid, Cleethorpes, maybe over to Morecambe or even Blackpool.
Relatively local with the occasional long haul down to Newquay or
maybe away from the beach in the Lakes. Apart from the school trip to Switzerland I didn't get to Europe till I was eighteen and, even then, it was only to Paris.
Nowadays
my pals back in the UK tell me that they've been to far flung
destinations - Bali, New Zealand, Goa, the Maldives, Abu Dabi. To be
different you have to give Skyscanner a good workout and head for
Kazakhstan or Greenland and even then it's just another destination.
Talking to
Spanish students about their holiday plans is a reminder of my
Scarborough days. They seem perfectly happy to go to the nearest
seaside resort, if it's not too far, or otherwise they head for some
rural destination equally close to home. It's a massive
generalisation of course but I read something today that backs up my
perception.
The
Spanish Holiday Habits survey carried out by Madison Market Research
for Cerveceros of Spain found that 90% of Spaniards prefer to stay
local during the summer holidays. Half of those interviewed,
irrespective of their age, said that the beach was favourite though
trying new cities and new cuisine was good for about a third of the
sample. It's been the same for the past forty years.
The survey
did note one change though. The family holiday home is now less
popular than staying in a hotel. The other big change is what goes in your luggage. The mobile phone obviously goes but
so too do the laptop and the tablet. It's no good simply going on holiday you have to prove it to your pals by posting where you
are online. Facebook is the favourite social network followed by
WhatsApp and Instagram.
Over four
of every ten people said that their favourite holiday drink was beer.
First day essentials were going for a beer on a terrace, the space
outside the bar, and having a siesta. I suppose that they prove that
you are on holiday and not caught up in the usual round of work and
domestic tasks.
