A manifesto pledge to stop fining parents who take their children out of school for holidays could have a decisive influence on next year’s UK General Election, reveals the World Travel Market 2014 Industry Report released today (Monday 3 November).

The report found that a commitment to scrapping the policy would influence almost a fifth of UK holidaymakers (18%) of respondents’ decision to vote for a political party.

Furthermore, an additional 21% said that they were not sure or undecided.

Only 61% of the sample said the issue would have no impact on their decision, meaning that nearly four in ten of the UK electorate will consider the issue before casting their vote.

The figures reflect the opinions of the entire nationally representative sample, including people who do not have children of school age.

Overall, the election is likely to be very close, according to the report. It found that the Conservatives on 28% have a narrow lead over Labour (26%) with UKIP on 15%.

The controversial policy of introducing fines for parents who take their children on holiday without the head teachers’ permission was introduced in September 2013. A BBC report this August found that 64,000 fines had been imposed within the first few months.

Holiday companies have been forced to defend peak pricing as a result, with Prime Minister David Cameron saying: “The industry sometimes seems to deliberately put up prices at holiday time”.

The report also found that one in three parents (33%) said that the rules were “strictly enforced” at their child’s school, with 45% admitting that “each case was dealt with on its own merits”.

However, 5% admitted that their children attended a school where the rule was not enforced.

Despite the threat of a fine, more than one-third of parents (37%) admitted to having taken their children away during term time.

Participants in the study who do not have children of a school age were also asked for their take on the law. One in five (20%) strongly agreed thinking that school is important with one in four (25%) strongly disagreeing saying that holidays are important. Overall, a net 8% were not in favour of the fines regime.

World Travel Market, Senior Director, Simon Press, said: “The controversy around term-time fines for parents is clearly an important issue on a national level, and our research shows that it is an issue which could have an impact on next year’s General Election.

“The introduction of term-time fines has proved very unpopular with parents who have taken their children out of school for a holiday to avoid paying peak-time summer holiday costs. So it is understandable parents could vote for a political party that vows to scrap the policy.”

The sample of more than 1,011 UK holidaymakers – who took a holiday of seven nights or more either in the UK or abroad in 2014 – was nationally representative and all respondents had taken at least one holiday of seven days or more over the past twelve months.

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About World Travel Market

World Travel Market, the leading global event for the travel industry, is the must-attend four-day business-to-business exhibition for the worldwide travel and tourism industry.

More than 50,000 senior travel industry professionals, government ministers and international press, embark on ExCeL – London every November to network, negotiate and discover the latest industry opinion and trends at WTM.

WTM, now in its 35th year, is the event where the travel industry conducts and concludes its deals.

WTM 2013 generated more than £2 billion of travel industry contracts, revealed independent research by Fusion Communications.

WTM is owned by the world’s leading events organiser Reed Exhibitions (RE), which organises a other portfolio’s of travel industry events including IBTM Events, the world’s leading showcases for the meetings and events industry and International Luxury Travel Market events.

In 2013, RE held more than 500 events in 40 countries bringing together more than six million people from around the world generating billions of dollars in business.

Reed Exhibitions

Reed Travel Exhibitions (RTE) is the world’s leading provider of exhibitions in the travel and tourism industry, with a wide-ranging portfolio of 21 international events in 14 countries throughout the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, Asia Pacific and Africa.

Its market-leading, business-to-business events cover all elements of travel and tourism, including leisure travel, luxury travel, meetings, events, incentives and business travel, as well as golf, ski and spa travel.

RTE is part of Reed Exhibitions.

www.reedtravelexhibitions.com