Southern and East Africa are expected to benefit from a strong year of travel from the UK in 2026 as a result of a stabler than expected economic environment and a continuing shift towards experiential travel.
UK consumers and travel industry members braced for tax increases in the country’s 2025 Autumn Budget in November. This affected discretionary spend such as travel. But the news wasn’t as bad as many feared, according to Bruce Martin, CEO and Founder of leading UK-based publication Travel Gossip.
“There were no big tax rises that really impacted everyone in the country and there wasn’t anything particularly aimed at travel or aviation. There’s not that much holding the UK travel industry back at the moment,” said Martin, presenting the ATTA-hosted Inside the UK Travel Trade webinar.
Martin pointed out that, according to the Association for British Travel Agents (ABTA), just 28% of UK adults will consider cutting back on holiday spend in order to cover day-to-day costs.
“That’s the lowest number it’s been for quite a few years. So travel is really important to us and is experiencing year-on-year growth every year. It’s a mature, resilient market and it’s not really driven by spikes of pent-up demand,” said Martin.
Africa’s experience-led advantage
Martin said Africa plays perfectly into the UK market’s thirst for experiential and bucket list travel.
“Travel is being guided more by experience-led decisions than destinations. It’s less about ‘I must go to this country’ and more about ‘I want to go and do this’. And that’s good news for Africa because it does offer us experiences that are not only distinctive but also very hard to substitute,” said Martin.
“Travel is positioned within a wider set of life-defining choices rather than just going to do a safari. Operators who can sell a full experience beyond the safari can help with catching more demand,” Martin added.
He described the older traveller demographic as the “real growth engine” in the UK market.
“For Africa, in particular, they are extremely valuable. They’re very asset and time rich, aren’t squeezing travel into limited holiday periods and are seeking meaningful experiences.”
Trust in travel agents high
Despite the rise of OTAs and AI-driven booking platforms, 34% of travel bookings are still handled by UK travel agents, according to ABTA’s research.
Martin said, because agents are balancing high levels of capacity and queries with high volumes of late bookings, preference is often placed on tried-and-tested destinations, UK-based tour operators and trusted suppliers.
“Agents will often go for the safest and easiest option and use UK-based operators that are ATOL-protected. It’s a little bit harder for DMCs to get in with agents, especially doing it from afar, because they don’t offer the same protections,” said Martin.
“That’s the kind of problem that needs to be overcome and trade engagement becomes critical. It’s not that agents are not interested in particular products; it’s just that there’s a lot of different stuff out there for them to sell and it’s very noisy. So it’s all about cutting through the noise and getting people to engage with the idea of a particular experience or destination,” Martin said, emphasising the importance of fam trips and utilising media platforms catering to the trade.
Lead times on both ends of the scale
Martin said, while consumers are booking travel earlier on average, especially for high-end, long-haul travel, late bookings are still a major proportion of the market.
“While one part of the market is spending with confidence and booking the premium trips, the other side has to be more cautious although they will still find a way of going on holiday – even if it means paying in instalments. This is why you see strong growth at the top end of the market and discounting at the other,” said Martin.
“That means clear messages and strong storytelling are key to giving agents and operators the tools to sell destinations early rather than compromising on price.”
