Britons shunning 'staycations' and travelling abroad

For the past few years, seaside towns and B&Bs across the country have enjoyed a revival as cash-strapped Britons shunned their usual foreign holidays.

But it looks like that's changing. In the first three months of 2011, the number of Britons travelling abroad jumped by 6% to 13.7 million, according to the Office for National Statistics.

So could this spell a change of fortune for the travel industry, which has had to deal with a whole string of setbacks, from ash clouds to soaring oil prices and unrest in the Arab world?

Scott Durchslag, president of Expedia Worldwide, told the BBC he thought people wanted to travel to escape economic gloom.