UK couples spend double on their honeymoon compared to holidays

Emirates Holidays reveals that engaged Brits will spend 2.5 million hours planning their honeymoon this year

Picking a honeymoon is almost as difficult as selecting your wedding party and choosing what food to serve your guests, Emirates Holidays has revealed. 

Couples in the UK spend an average of nine hours planning their honeymoon, compared to the 6 hours 41 minutes usually spent arranging a normal holiday – and are happy to spend more than £4,000 for the honeymoon of a lifetime compared to the £2,235 of any other holiday. 

Emirates Holidays is partnering with the Tourism Authority of Thailand to recruit dedicated Honeymoon Planners. The three experts specialise in creating bespoke packages for couples' honeymoons in Thailand, one Emirates’ top five destinations. 

Honeymoon planner Nasreen Yousaf says: “A honeymoon is the perfect time to indulge whilst celebrating those first magic moments as a married couple, which is why it’s no surprise that we tend to splash out spending double what we’d spend on a holiday.

Emirates Holidays also revealed that 43% of couples say that going somewhere new and unfamiliar was a priority when choosing where to go on honeymoon. 47% also said that a good climate was a key factor in honeymoon planning. 

55% of British couples visit more than one destination on honeymoon, with the average trip lasting two weeks. 17% of newlyweds will spend a month or more travelling. 

And we can expect to see more brides and grooms honeymooning with their families, Emirates Holidays noted. 47% of couples said they would bring their children, extended family or grandparents on a ‘Familymoon’. 

And it seems grooms are the more romantic when it comes to honeymoon planning. 44% of British men surveyed said a romantic experience would top their list of memorable honeymoon moments, whereas for 47% of women it was staying in amazing accommodation. 

Honeymoon planner Danielle Cox says: “At Emirates Holidays we understand how stressful and time-consuming it can be planning a honeymoon on top of your other wedding prep. From researching all the options on offer, to making decisions on destination/s, dates, flights, accommodation and activities right through to the booking itself, it’s no surprise that British couples are collectively clocking up more than 2.5 million hours getting their dream trips in the diary.”