The proportion of people not going on at least one holiday a year is rising, according to new research.
Almost one in four (23%) did not take a break in the past 12 months, compared to just 10% in 2011, the poll of 2,003 adults showed.
Pressure on household finances appears to be the key factor in the decline, with the biggest reduction in holidays coming from those with the tightest budgets.
In 2011 some 81% of those classified in the lowest social grade - such as low earners, the unemployed and people relying on the state pension - took a holiday, but fewer than half (49%) will take a break this year.
Despite this, the average number of trips taken by Britons in the past year was 3.2, up from 3.0 in 2014.
This rise is being fuelled by affluent people going on more holidays.
Those in the highest social grade took an average of eight holidays in the past year, compared to 7.4 four years ago.
Londoners are the most prolific holidaymakers in the UK, averaging 4.4 a year, followed by people in the North West (3.5), Yorkshire (3.1) and the West Midlands (3.1).
Northern Irish residents take the fewest holidays at 1.8 per year, behind the South West (2.5) and East Anglia (2.5).
The survey results, forming Abta's consumer holiday trends report 2015, were announced in the Peloponnese, southern Greece, where the travel organisation is holding its annual convention.
Abta chief executive Mark Tanzer commented: "The travel industry has seen a steady return to growth in recent years following the credit crunch and worldwide economic crisis.
"It is very encouraging to see optimism and growth with many people choosing to take more holidays, particularly longer overseas breaks.
"However, some people are clearly still feeling the pinch and are either cutting back on the number of holidays, or not taking a holiday at all.
"This suggests the long tail of the recession is still having an impact on people's ability to afford at least one holiday a year."
The overseas market appears to have benefited most from the increase in holidays per person.
Britons took an average of 1.5 foreign holidays in the 12 months to August, compared to 1.2 in the previous year.
This could be partly due to the strength of the pound against a range of foreign currencies, in particular the euro.
Meanwhile domestic breaks fell from 1.8 to 1.7 over the same period.
Abta said this latest figure represented a market correction and was still higher than before the financial crisis hit in 2007/8.
The poll also showed that people were more optimistic about their future holiday prospects, with almost a quarter (23%) saying they will spend more money on their holidays next year, compared to just 15% intending to spend less.
A city break remains the UK's favourite type of holiday and its popularity is increasing.
Some 54% of people took one in the 12 months to August, up from 42% last year.
Beach holidays were a close second, rising from 38% to 50%.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here