Gap years were once the preserve of wealthy, middle-class teenagers taking a year off before university to go drinking, partying or seeking adventure abroad.

But gap-year travel has changed and is currently booming as people made redundant spend their payoffs on round-the-world holidays and volunteer projects overseas.

Defying the downturn in the general travel market, tour operators specialising in gapyear breaks are seeing demand for their programmes increase, in some cases even doubling.

Voluntary Services Overseas, which organises overseas work placements for professionals, saw a 10 per cent jump between September and October in the number of applications from people with a business management background. Inquiries between September and November have more than doubled compared to the same period last year.

Raleigh International, which offers community and conservation expeditions, said that September was one of its best months for a number of years with bookings up almost 50 per cent compared with last year.

As the recession looms, those who have worked in well-paid professions are deciding in growing numbers that the financial gloom provides a perfect opportunity to escape Britain and go travelling.

Eimear, a 25-year-old investment banker from the Irish Republic, worked in finance for three years, most recently as a structured products analyst in the investment arm of a German bank in Dublin, before it was taken over last year. She decided to leave Ireland, and the prospect of redundancy, in August, and is travelling in Africa and Asia with her partner, also a former investment banker. She plans to seek a new job in Hong Kong early next year.

“I decided to go travelling for a couple of months to try and escape it – it was something I was always planning to do, I just decided to bring it forward,” she said.

Alltracks, which organises skiing instructor courses in Canada has seen a recent surge in bookings from “thirtysomething” professionals – some of whom have been made redundant. Bookings have risen by 50 per cent in the past three weeks.

A number of the professionals now venturing overseas did not have an opportunity to take a gap year when they were younger, but have seen others reap the benefits.

“People who finished school or university and went straight into work are realising they haven’t done anything like that. They are saying: ‘If I don’t do this now when am I going to do it?’,” said Tracy Bromfield, the director of Vivisto, a gapyear company. “They are looking to take a few months off to reevaluate what has happened to them, and to decide what they are going to do.”

Research by Mintel, the market research organisation, showed adult gap voluntary and experience holidays overtaking students in terms of revenues last year. As students become increasingly laden with debt, the largest growth sector could be the market for older gappers.

“Most people [coming to us] have a fair amount of disposable income,” says Peter Mandara, from Coral Cay Conservation, a not-for-profit NGO that organises conservation expeditions on the coral reefs and rainforests of the Philippines, Tobago and Papua New Guinea. “In the past two weeks bookings and interest have picked up a lot. This is consistent with the last recession. People coming to us are looking to change their career path or do something more responsible with their time,” he said.

Another factor is the falling price of property, according to Tom Griffiths the founder of gapyear.com. “People who have been saving for property are not buying now. They realise that they can wait until the market hits rock bottom and, in the meantime, that they can take a long break with the money they are saving.”

Over55s are also travelling on gapyear breaks, he added. “They are saying to us: ‘Let’s leave the country while everything is down’.”

Rachel Morgan-Trimmer, the director of thecareerbreaksite.com, says that instead of fighting a difficult jobs market, people are looking to try something new and give something back to society. She said: “The people we talk to want to invest in experiences and in making a difference, rather than in volatile shares or plasma screen TVs.”

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