Having surveyed 15,124 Brits from September through end of October, Cheapflights.co.uk, the UK’s leading website for travel deals comparison, finds travel is still a priority despite recession and budget cuts in other areas.

When asked if they had cut back in other areas of expenditure in order to protect their travel budget, 83 per cent of those surveyed answered yes, proving that holidays remain atop the personal priority list even in a down economy.

“Our results are a clear-cut demonstration that Brits are a passionate nation of holiday makers,” says Hugo Burge, CEO of Cheapflights Media.

“Even—or perhaps especially—when times are tough and wallets are being pinched, the preference is to squirrel away funds for a sunny getaway. We all need things to look forward to, and travel in search of a little sun, family time and R & R is the luxury that has become something of a necessity for us all,” adds Burge.

To further reinforce the fact that the desire to get away is going strong, more than half (i.e., 57 per cent) of those surveyed said that they also took more than one holiday this year. An overwhelming 75 per cent cited that their holiday spend for the year exceed £500 while 66 per cent voted for winter sun as their preferred type of holiday.

Of the 15,124 respondents who took part in the survey, 58 per cent were female while 41 per cent were male and the majority were aged 41 and over. However, 23 per cent fell within the 26 to 40 bracket, showing that the urge to travel isn’t limited to those with more savings, but is even a priority for those with potentially less to spend.

When it came to destination trends, the choices were quite split with the strongest performers coming in as Europe at 25 per cent, North America at 18 per cent and Australasia at 17 per cent.

The normally popular Middle East showed a lull in popularity, which indicates that travellers are being cautious about heading there given the recent political troubles in the region.

Given the popularity of winter sun as a favourite holiday type, Cheapflights.co.uk searched its database for this year’s preferred winter sun destinations and found the top five to be Bangkok, Sydney, Dubai, Orlando and India. Additional high performers included Las Vegas, Manila and Johannesburg.