The UK high street is suffering, first it was out of town supermarket’s like Tesco and Sainsburys that were taking the lions share of business from the local retailer’s with butchers and bakers feeling the pinch and a new report shows that local travel agents are now being hit just as hard as families migrate to the internet for their travel bookings.

The survey was carried out by ABTA, the association of British travel agents and consisted of 2000 UK travellers. Of these 2000 a huge 45% booked their most recent travel arrangements online, a statistic that is bound to worry local shops as travellers shun the high street to conduct their travel shopping online.

Overseas travel is still popular with Spain proving a firm favourite but the “stay-cation” which sees Brits ditch popular destinations like the Algarve in favour of a local holiday in the UK was the surprise hit this year with the UK beating France and Greece as the second most popular holiday destination among those surveyed.

Director of Travel Russell Beech at discount travel site Mega commented ”the survey is in-line with the trends we have seen as a company. More and more of our users have been searching for UK focused travel voucher codes including those for Travelodge and Premier Inn hotels. We are also seeing sharp increase in travel traffic as users search for travel discounts. While the high street offers a personal service that many still like others are becoming more price aware and the internet offers the change to compare prices and deal hunt and in a credit crunch the trend against the high street is likely to continue.”

Its hard to say how things will move in 2012 but if the economy continues to fail could it be the final nail in the coffin for the UK high street?