Whether you spend all year in the UK, or have a holiday every month, you still need clothes to wear, and are still going to buy them in your hometown. Claiming that air travel benefits the UK economy by encouraging people to buy T-shirts and shorts that were made in Asia is flimsy at best
Many UK residents will book and pay for holiday accommodation while they are still in the UK, either online through a hotel booking website, or via a travel agent that may be a website or online. Yes, some of the money may stay with the travel agent, but the bulk is paid to the hotel based outside the UK.
The only other big spend before leaving the UK is flights, but difficult to justify paying money to Ryanair for a flight to a Spanish beach as significantly benefitting the UK economy.
While ferries did the same job as aircraft in terms of exporting UK tourists to western Europe, they were much less effective at doing so. To go from major UK population centres to anywhere beyond Calais took a lot of time - and the area around Calais has only limited visitor appeal (unless you want to buy booze + fags and pay less tax to the UK Govt). The number of destinations by LCC from main UK airports for a weekend break is enormous - that weekend trip from Manchester to Barcelona is very easy to do. As a country which is a net exporter of tourists, aviation makes it much easier for people to spend their money abroad. Consumer spend on jet fuel has very limited benefit to the UK economy.
Having a holiday each year is good for worker morale and productivity.
Brits spending a week in a cottage in Devon is good for the UK economy. Those flights from Luton to southern Europe are only a bad thing for the UK economy.
Last edited by davidjohnson6; 19th Jul 2012 at 16:26.