The European economy is recovering and Europeans seem to be spending more on their summer holidays than previous years. Up to 79 per cent of middle class European households plan to spend the same amount as last year or more during their summer holidays. That's a seven per cent increase from last year.
The evidence comes from Ferratum Group’s annual Holiday Barometer™ survey - that this year polled 17,600 households across 19 European countries.
In relation to household disposable income, Germans are planning to spend more than anyone else in Europe (71%). Surprisingly, some of Europe’s smallest economies (by GDP per capita) like Bulgaria (65%) and Romania (57%) are following Germany's example.
In France and Czech Republic, middle class households are spending more than half their disposable income on holiday spending. In Britain, Nordic countries and The Netherlands holiday spending is relatively low. In the middle ground of holiday spending is Sweden with 43% - close to the total average of all 19 European countries surveyed.
The largest European consumer survey carried out by Ferratum Group - a Finnish pioneer in financial technology. 17 600 households across 19 European and Commonwealth countries took part in the survey of summer spending habits
Most money gets spent at home, not abroad
Almost 20 per cent of European summer spending goes on domestic travel, which is especially popular in Nordic countries, The Baltics and Eastern Europe. While Brits and Nordics are happy to pay over 100 EUR per night in a hotel, the rest of Europe are more prudent. Home letting service AirBnB is most popular among Czech, Bulgarian, Slovakian, Romanian and Dutch holidaymakers. Summer fashion is the second largest expense in Europe. In France, Spain and Holland about one fifth of holiday spending goes on clothes. The third biggest expense is food and drink, with Britain and Poland spending the most in bars and restaurants on holiday.
Banking is mobile during European holidays - Fastest Bank in the World launched in Sweden.
The number of people using smartphones for private banking globally is expected to reach 1 billion by 2017. FerratumBank launched its mobile banking platform in Sweden, where according to the Holiday Barometer™ survey mobile banking service usage is highest among the Europeans. Over 90 per cent of Swedish households are using mobile devices to take care of their daily transactions during the holiday season.
With FerratumBank an online account can be opened in five minutes. Customers are able to open up to 14 current accounts in the most common currencies and transfer money between them in real-time. Since a FerratumBank card debits accounts in the local currency, customers can avoid exchange rate fees set by traditional banks and credit card companies. In addition, FerratumBank offers many mobile loans and term deposits of up to 1.25 per cent interest.
FerratumBank's mobile platform will launch in other European countries during 2016. This means customers will be able to make real-time transactions throughout the European Economic Area for the first time in the history of European banking.
