The price of package holidays, which are supposed to offer the best value for money at home or abroad, rose by 12.4% in the EU between January and May, following an increase of 11.5% last year, the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) said in a press release on Wednesday 19 July.
This is “the biggest increase in the cost of package holidays since records began in 1996”, adds the ETUC, which deplores the repercussions on families’ ability to go on holiday.
“Residents of Estonia, France, Bulgaria, Sweden and the Czech Republic were hit by the biggest increases in the cost of a package holiday, with rises of between 18% and 31%”.
And the average price of a package holiday represents “more than a month’s salary for people earning the minimum wage in 14 Member States”.
Furthermore, according to Eurostat, around 19.5% of the working population, or 38 million people, cannot afford to spend a week away from home.
And for those forced to stay at home, “the cost of recreational and cultural activities, including visits to the cinema or museums, has risen by a third” compared with 2022. (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)