NEWTON, Massachusetts, Sept 13 — A global survey that polled people’s travel plans shows that households in Africa are leading the charge in the percentage of people who plan to spend more on travel in 2014.

According to TripAdvisor’s annual TripBarometer, globally 61 per cent of the 19,000 travellers polled said they planned to spend the same amount or less next year on travel plans.

But when asked if they planned to increase their travel budgets in 2014, 59 per cent of respondents in Africa answered in the affirmative compared with just 35 per cent of Americans.

After Africa, a little less than half (48 per cent) of respondents in South America said they planned to spend more on travel next year, followed by people in Central America (47 per cent), the Middle East (46 per cent) and Asia (42 per cent) — all emerging markets.

According to the report, the majority of travellers around the world (85 per cent) are likewise taking more staycations — going on day trips within driving distance, sleeping in their own beds at night. This trend is particularly pervasive among US travellers where the figure spikes to 91 per cent.

The most common way to finance their travel plans is to scale back on the number of big nights spent out, followed by eating out, shopping, and cigarettes. — AFP/Relaxnews