Grahame McKenzie of Travel Mole, a tourism website, has predicted that the global downturn will cause Britons to holiday in locations within Europe, such as Spain, Italy, France and Germany.

The news follows a recent survey by kayak.co.uk, a travel portal, which showed that 60% of Britons have no intention of cancelling their holiday winter plans because of the economic downturn.

Liam Bailey, chief market analyst for Property Abroad, an overseas property portal, said: “While it is highly likely that some people will decide to holiday in Europe, most Britons already do holiday in Europe, so I can’t see there being a massive upsurge, but even a slight upsurge could generate a boost in European property markets.

“If McKenzie is right this would make the biggest difference to Germany. This is because, traditionally, German property has very low rental yields because of Government restrictions, and because of the fact that very few Germans own their own homes meaning that most rentals are residential. This would - possibly very quickly - give Germans the ability to raise their rental rates on short-term leases only, because the Government would see the positive effect this could have on the economy combined with the increase in tourism.”