Departure lounge dumping adds up
Holiday makers are wasting an estimated £1 billion in departure lounges every year as they attempt to dump the last of their holiday money.According to research by Abbey, last year 16 million Brits - or 36 per cent of the population - wasted their money on their way home from holiday to use up the last of their foreign currency, with the average amount dumped standing as £65. A majority of people (58 per cent) buy refreshments in notoriously expensive airport cafes, while 35 per cent buy gifts for friends and families at home, 31 per splash out on duty-free perfume, and 14 per cent buy tacky souvenirs to remind them of their holiday.Men were almost a third more likely as women to be guilty of this kind of behaviour and tended to dump more money too, at an average of £68 each, compared to females who dump £10 less.But with half-term holidays on the way, Steve Shore, head of banking at Abbey, said: "With little else to do in the departure lounge, shopping helps kill the dead time between checking-in and boarding a flight. "But it's amazing how much people are prepared to waste. Even with a commission fee, converting the money back into sterling is far more cost effective than splurging it on things you don't need."
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