Kuoni's Global Holiday Report (english) PDF • 3.15 MB

Best friends
forever?
It’s not just romantic relationships that can
flourish on holiday – new friendships can develop
too. But will they last?
More than a quarter of participants say that they
are most likely to become acquainted with local people
from the area that they holidayed in (27%). This
rises to a third of those aged 55-65, possibly because
they have made repeat visits to the same holiday
destination. However, 11% of holidaymakers have not
made any friends on holiday, and 9% have not made
friends with any nationalities apart from their own.
The top five nationalities holidaymakers
are most likely to make acquaintance with:
h British (23%)
h Spanish (16%)
h French (15%)
h Italian (14%)
h Swedish (10%)
Buddy, buddy... which nationalities are
the most amicable, though?
h Almost a quarter (23%) have made most acquaintances
with Britons. This is especially true of Indian and
Swedish holidaymakers (44% & 31%).
h Holidaymakers from Italy and France are most likely
to befriend Spanish holidaymakers (43% & 26%).
h More than four in ten Belgians (41%) have
befriended French people, probably because French
is so widely spoken in Belgium that there is no
language barrier.
h A third of Spaniards have made friends with Italians
on holiday indicating that, for the most part, fellow
Europeans are most likely to forge friendships.
“”
kuoni holiday report 2011
pages 22 23
Indians and
Italians appear
to be the most
sociable
h Danish people are least likely to make
friends during their trip, while Indians and
Italians appear to be the most sociable:
over one in five Danish people (22%) say
that they have not made any friends
compared to just 5% of Indian and Italian
holidaymakers.
But what happens to these
friendships when the holiday
is over?
Can they survive the distance? More than
four in ten holidaymakers (42%) said that
they are most likely to sustain a friendship
with people from the same country as
them. People from Spain (55%) and Sweden
(52%) are most likely to say this.
Almost a third (31%) of holidaymakers
said that they are most likely to sustain a
friendship with people from the area
they holidayed in. More than half of Indian
holidaymakers say this (52%) indicating
that they are most likely to make repeat
visits.
However almost a quarter of participants
(24%) said that they would never sustain
a friendship with anyone after a holiday,
rising to 58% of Finnish people and 38%
of Britons.
Families are the biggest group to form
holiday friendships, unsurprisingly. Almost
one in five parents (19%) have not made
friends with any nationality but their
own on holiday. Given that parents often
make friends as a result of their children
playing together, this suggests that a
language barrier can be an issue.
Nevertheless, the majority of
holidaymakers clearly believe
that holiday friendships can –
and do – last when we return
to our everyday lives.