Britons sacrifice holidays in downturn While only six per cent of people said that they had stopped taking holidays altogether, twice this number said that they are staying in the UK rather than traveling abroad. One in ten holiday-makers is swapping long-haul for short-haul holidays to reduce the costs of flights. The report is based on a Populus survey of over 1,200 people, carried out on behalf of the Post Office. Holiday behaviour is likely to change further in the spring when the Government's increase in Air Passenger Duty raises the cost of flying. Last summer almost 600,000 Britons sacrificed a foreign holiday to save money in the face of the economic downturn, figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) showed. The figures showed that the number of UK residents taking an overseas holiday over the three months to August 2011 was 13.4 million, a fall of 578,000 from the same period in 2010. The Post Office's report found that the "worsening economic situation at home and in Europe" has had a marked impact on Britons" attitudes towards their holidays. Holidays may be an important feature of people's lives but fear of getting into debt is a bigger issue for many people. As a result, they will only travel if they can afford it - tailoring trips to stay within budget," the report says. The Post Office found that credit cards are used by just under half of all people to defer paying for a holiday. Less than half of these people pay off their credit cards in one go following the holiday, the report says.