IN THE week that some financial analysts began drawing comparisons between today's economic troubles and the dark days of 20 per cent inflation in the 1970s, British travellers may be about to get another taste of that decade: fewer, but longer, holidays.

Tour operators predict that fortnight, three-week and even longer breaks could make a comeback as fuel prices force up the price of flying during the “credit crunch”.

“People still want their summer holidays and they'll still have them,” Andy Cooper, director general of the Federation of Tour Operators (FTO), told Times Travel.

“Over the years there has been a switch from fortnight to week-long breaks, with more weekends away on top of summer holidays - particularly since the 1990s. That trend looks like it could reverse.”

With the price of fuel reaching $135 a barrel this week - up from $55 three years ago - people are expected to forgo weekends in Riga and Prague, says Cooper. Prices could rise further, he said, and Britons may have to adopt a new holiday pattern.

Latest research from the Association of British Travel Agents bears out the shift away from many quick holidays in Europe, showing that short-haul sales are down 3 per cent year on year up to March, while long-haul trips with longer durations are up 4 per cent. Both Kuoni, the country's leading long-haul operator, and Thomson, a major mass market package company, also report a growth in holiday lengths.

An Abta spokesman said that the budget airline boom of recent years could stagnate, and that people may start thinking twice about going abroad so often: “That's what it was like in the 1970s and 1980s. People would simply go for two-week summer holidays. The sheer cost of flying was so high then.

“If flights do keep on getting expensive, people may go abroad for longer. For tour operators, this is not so bad: they're still getting business. But for the aviation industry it's not so good.”

Ryanair recently announced it was grounding 20 aircraft this winter ahead of an expected drop in demand, and easyJet this week said that it was considering the future of its Dortmund base in Germany. Andy Harrison, easyJet's boss, said: “If these fuel increases are maintained many of our weaker competitors will disappear or downsize.”

One benefit of travelling less for longer is that British holidaymakers will have lower carbon footprints from flying, the FTO pointed out. Another is that people will be able to “relax and switch off more”, according to Lucy Seifert, who runs Life Coaching in London, advising people about their “work-life balance”.

She said: “Some people take three days to wind down, and a couple of days to wind back up before they return home. That doesn't leave much time to relax in between. Longer breaks will make shutting off easier.”

Dan Linstead, editor of Wanderlust, said that the credit crunch could encourage people “to sacrifice frequent short breaks [for] the occasional but life-enhancing trip to Machu Picchu or the Masai Mara”. Travellers would, he said, benefit from becoming more immersed in local cultures.

As holidays get longer tour operators this week also reported that people are increasingly opting for all-inclusive packages. Operators say that customers prefer to know the full cost of their holiday before travelling when difficult economic times loom.

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