Budget travel spending varies sharply with destination, trip purpose, accommodation, and timing. Official data provides useful planning benchmarks, although the measures below are not a dedicated backpacker sample: the Great Britain figures cover domestic overnight trips, Eurostat covers EU residents’ tourism trips, and the ONS figures cover international visits to and from the UK.
Table of contents
- Overall daily spending benchmarks
- Quarterly differences across Great Britain
- Spending by trip purpose
- Accommodation and overnight budgets
- Where the money goes
- Destination, booking, and traveler effects
Overall daily spending benchmarks
The clearest domestic benchmark comes from the Great Britain Tourism Survey 2024, published by VisitBritain. Average domestic overnight spending increased from £85 per person per night in 2022 to £92 in 2023 and £107 in 2024. These are nominal pounds and describe average domestic overnight travelers rather than a separately identified budget-traveler group. Great Britain Tourism Survey 2024
The same survey reports an average Great Britain domestic overnight trip cost of £266 per person in 2023 and £312 in 2024. The per-trip figure and the per-night figure answer different planning questions: the first reflects the whole trip, while the second is a nightly benchmark. A 2024 domestic overnight trip in England averaged £305 per person, while Scotland averaged £113 per person per night. England’s daily figure was £107 per person per night in 2024.
| Measure | Period | Average spending |
|---|---|---|
| Great Britain domestic overnight trip | 2023 | £266 per person |
| Great Britain domestic overnight trip | 2024 | £312 per person |
| Great Britain domestic overnight night | 2022 | £85 per person |
| Great Britain domestic overnight night | 2023 | £92 per person |
| Great Britain domestic overnight night | 2024 | £107 per person |
| EU tourism overnight night | 2023 | €97.6 per person |
Eurostat provides a broader European comparison. EU residents spent an average of €97.6 per person per night on tourism trips with at least one overnight stay in 2023, up from €87.3 in 2022. The measure includes transport, accommodation, and other trip consumption, so it is not a room-only rate or a food-only budget. Tourism statistics - intra-EU tourism flows
Quarterly differences across Great Britain
The annual Great Britain average hides meaningful seasonal variation. Domestic overnight spending was £90 per person per night in Q1 2024, £105 in Q2, £106 in Q3, and £125 in Q4. This is a planning benchmark for the measurement periods shown, not a forecast for another year.
England followed almost the same pattern: £90 in Q1, £105 in Q2, and £104 in Q3 2024. Scotland was higher in the later quarters, moving from £92 in Q1 to £111 in Q2 and £118 in Q3. Wales began lower at £83 in Q1, increased to £97 in Q2, and reached £108 in Q3.
| Destination | Q1 2024 | Q2 2024 | Q3 2024 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Great Britain | £90 | £105 | £106 |
| England | £90 | £105 | £104 |
| Scotland | £92 | £111 | £118 |
| Wales | £83 | £97 | £108 |
All figures in this table are average domestic overnight spending per person per night from VisitBritain’s Great Britain Tourism Survey 2024. The survey’s Q4 Great Britain benchmark was £125 per person per night, the highest quarterly figure supplied for 2024. For a traveler planning a fixed-budget trip, the figures show why a single nationwide daily number can be misleading: both season and country within Great Britain matter.
Spending by trip purpose
Purpose is another major divider. Across Great Britain in 2024, a holiday trip averaged £370 per person. Visiting friends or relatives averaged £208, while a business trip averaged £521. Trips assigned to a miscellaneous purpose averaged £345. These are average costs per person for the complete domestic overnight trip, not daily rates.
England’s comparable 2024 figures were £360 for a holiday overnight trip and £516 for a business overnight trip. The average England domestic overnight trip across purposes was £305 per person. The holiday figure is therefore a useful planning reference for leisure travel, but it should not be treated as a guaranteed budget or as a backpacker-specific result.
The difference between holiday and visiting-friends-and-relatives travel also illustrates how accommodation and other trip choices can change the total. A traveler staying with friends may have a substantially different cost structure from one paying for lodging, even when the destination and trip length are similar. The supplied survey reports the averages, but it does not establish that accommodation alone caused the difference.
Accommodation and overnight budgets
England’s 2024 accommodation breakdown gives a practical view of how lodging categories corresponded with total trip spending. Serviced accommodation accounted for 45% of domestic overnight trips and those trips averaged £397 per person. Self-catering property rentals accounted for 11% and averaged £415 per person. Caravan, camping, or glamping accounted for 9% and averaged £237 per person. Staying in someone’s private home accounted for 30% and averaged £148 per person. Other or unspecified accommodation accounted for 4% and averaged £324 per person. Great Britain Tourism Survey 2024
| England accommodation category | Share of domestic overnight trips | Average trip spend |
|---|---|---|
| Serviced accommodation | 45% | £397 per person |
| Self-catering property rental | 11% | £415 per person |
| Caravan, camping, or glamping | 9% | £237 per person |
| Someone’s private home | 30% | £148 per person |
| Other or unspecified | 4% | £324 per person |
Trip length also differed by lodging type. Self-catering property-rental trips in England averaged 3.7 nights in 2024, compared with 2.4 nights for hotel trips. A lower total trip price is not automatically a lower nightly cost, because the number of nights differs. The source reports the category averages and durations but does not provide a complete like-for-like nightly calculation for every accommodation type.
Accommodation represented 24% of the average England domestic overnight trip spend in 2024. That share places lodging alongside several other substantial categories, rather than making it the entire budget. For independent travelers, the figures support comparing both the accommodation price and the expected trip length before choosing between a hotel, rental, camping option, or private stay.
Where the money goes
The England domestic overnight spending mix for 2024 included several categories relevant to a daily budget. Package spending represented 18% of average trip spend. Travel costs to, from, and during the trip represented 14%. Eating and drinking out represented 15%, while eating and drinking in accommodation represented 6%.
Entertainment accounted for 6% and other shopping for 8%. Services or advice represented 2%, while anything else, unknown, or unspecified represented 7%. These are shares of the average trip spend, not fixed allowances for each traveler.
The distribution suggests that a budget plan needs more than a lodging line. Transport and food together can be material portions of the total, and the split between eating out and eating in accommodation is especially relevant to self-catering or private-stay travel. However, the reported shares should not be converted into unsupported pound amounts because the supplied data does not state that every category share is calculated from one identical per-person base in a way suitable for reconstructing a personal itinerary.
Sightseeing-including trips in England generated £9.2 billion in total trip spend in 2024. That is an aggregate measure across qualifying trips, not a daily traveler budget. It helps show the scale of sightseeing-related domestic travel while remaining distinct from the per-person and per-night benchmarks above.
Destination, booking, and traveler effects
Destination type shaped where England’s domestic overnight trip spending occurred in 2024. Large cities or large towns accounted for 53% of domestic overnight trip spend. Small towns accounted for 19%, countryside or village destinations for 14%, and seaside or other coastal destinations for 13%. These are shares of trip spend by destination type, not statements that one type had a particular average daily price.
Booking timing also produced different average trip totals. An England domestic overnight trip booked more than six months ahead averaged £464 per person in 2024, while one booked a week or less ahead averaged £349. The figures describe observed averages for those booking-timing groups; they do not show that booking early caused the higher total.
Traveler profile measures showed further differences. England trips by travelers aged 25–34 averaged £372 per person in 2024. Trips with children averaged £217, compared with £339 for trips without children. Larger-group trips averaged £427 per person, while trips not in larger groups averaged £279. These categories are useful comparison points, but they should not be combined as though they describe one traveler or one mutually exclusive budget scenario.
Eurostat’s international comparison adds two destination-level benchmarks. EU residents traveling to another EU country spent an average of €125 per person per night in 2024. Among the supplied country figures, EU residents traveling to Romania averaged €72 per person per night and those traveling to Slovakia averaged €78. These figures cover EU residents’ tourism trips and should not be treated as directly comparable with the domestic Great Britain series.
The ONS Travel trends: 2023 report gives a separate international-visit perspective: UK residents spent an average of £81 per person per day on visits abroad in 2023, while overseas residents spent an average of £106 per person per day in the UK. Travel trends: 2023 These ONS measures concern international visits to and from the UK, not domestic overnight trips, so currency, geography, and trip coverage differ from the VisitBritain and Eurostat measures.
For a budget traveler, the most defensible use of these statistics is as a set of dated reference points: start with the geography and trip type that best match the planned journey, then adjust attention toward the categories most likely to dominate that journey. The official figures provide comparison benchmarks, while the actual daily amount will depend on the specific destination, accommodation, season, purpose, and traveler profile represented by the trip.