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The credit crunch is not likely to stop people from taking holidays, according to a partner with one of the world's leading professional services firms.

Speaking at the Association of British Travel Agents (Abta) convention in Gran Canaria, Malcolm Preston of PricewaterhouseCoopers (PWC) said that travel spending next year will stay flat, but it is not likely to fall, TravelMole reports.

Mr Preston referred to a survey that asked people about the first and second things they are likely to stop spending money on. When the answers were aggregated, holidays were far down the list, with only a single-figure percentage saying they would give up travelling.

He said: 'There are many things that will go before that, which backs up our feeling that the industry is pretty resilient.'

The PWC partner also revealed that around 12% of the holiday market for summer 2009 is already sold, showing healthy early demand for travel.

Abta recently released a survey showing that 83% of people who have travelled abroad recently plan to take another holiday within the next 12 months.

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