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Sandra Halliday Published
July 26, 2025
Recent UK consumer confidence surveys may have shown sentiment being pretty weak, but one area in which consumers are upbeat is clear and a report on Wednesday underlined this, saying the prospect of summer holidays is generating plenty of optimism… and spending too.
Perhaps because of several years of enforced stay-at-home summers, the prospect of warmer weather, exciting upcoming events and holidays have been driving optimism among UK families, according to the M&S Family Matters Index.
Ahead of the horrific scenes of wildfires in parts of Europe (the survey of 5,000+ adults was conducted in early-to-mid-May), half of families were planning a holiday this summer — either at home or abroad — with a beach holiday the most popular type of getaway.
That’s good news for a raft of product categories such as swim and beachwear, summer casualwear, holiday eveningwear, summer accessories and beauty items such as suncare and waterproof make-up.
That was also made very clear by M&S saying that it has seen “three consecutive record-breaking weeks in sales across its Holiday Shop”.
Overall, it said “family optimism is at its highest level in almost two years” as runaway inflation starts to ease and the summer holidays begin. However, it also said there’s “a cautious sense of optimism emerging across the UK”, with consumers, not quite throwing caution to the winds just yet.
Almost half of the population (45%) now feel optimistic about their family’s prospects for the next three months. This is a marked improvement compared to September 2025’s record low (32%) when inflation was as high as 10.8%.
The Index also reveals one in three consumers (32%) now feel more in control of their families’ finances and have been looking to make the most of the summer holidays – with 37% seeing the summer break as an opportunity to spend more quality time with loved ones.
And as well as holidays, as of May, other events were proving to be key. This summer, almost half of the population (45%) have at least one thing to focus on such as a wedding, sporting event or concert to look forward to — which should provide a boost to the occasion dressing sector, the sports sector and the fan merchandise sector. And half of families were planning a staycation or holiday abroad. Europe was the destination of choice according to currency exchange data from M&S Bank.
In fact, Britons planned early this year with search data from M&S showing that ‘holidays’ was a trending search term in January and was up 69% between April and June when compared to the same period last year.
While the figures don’t take account of the very-recently-emerging situation in key destinations like Rhodes and Corfu, they do show just how holiday-focused Britons are.
With beach holidays accounting for over half (55%) of all international holidays, the aforementioned three consecutive record-breaking weeks for M&S’s Holiday Shop collection saw particular categories soaring. It recorded a spike in sales of beachwear (+46%), linen (+22%) and swimwear (+11%) between April and June.
But it’s not all about sun-worshipping. The retailer said current bestsellers include the Pure Cotton Textured Beach Shirt (£27.50) and Pure Linen Oversized Shirt (£35) “indicating consumers are looking to keep cool and cover up”.
Searches for swimming costumes have also jumped with a 134% rise and the Scallop Plunge Swimsuits (£35) being a top item seeing 38,000 sold to date.