The preferred holiday destination for most Europeans travelling between December 2008 and March 2009 is primarily their own country according to the latest Mondial Assistance travel barometer.
French, Spanish, British and Italian holidaymakers put their own countries at the top of their holiday destination list according to analysis of more than 300,000 travel insurance contracts booked by European travellers for winter travel.
Germans, however, prefer to spend winter holidays in Spain, rather than their own country.
"The shortened travel distances are probably proportional to the reduction in holiday budgets for Europeans generally," according to Martin Lyons, director general manager with Mondial Assistance in Dublin.
Perhaps this could mean that the less budget you have at your disposal, the shorter the distance you are likely to travel, he added.
The Mondial Assistance travel barometer is based on an analysis of 346,106 travel insurance contracts subscribed up to December 5th, 2008 on the Internet sites of European airline companies for flights scheduled between December 15th, 2008 and March 15th, 2009.