Career gappers revealed as fastest-growing travel segment

Although gap years may often be associated with students, the fastest-growing segment of travellers are those taking a career break, Tom Griffiths, the founder of Gapyear.com, has stated.

According to Mr Griffiths, the fastest-growing group in the gap-year industry is career gappers - those aged 25- to 35-years old.

The global gap-year market is predicted by Mintel to grow to £11bn by 2010 as career gappers increase due to the increasing possibility of taking time off work and changing travel markets.

Many of those on a career break missed out on having a gap year when they were 18 and their friends went travelling, Mr Griffiths remarked.

'Research we've done shows that the vast majority of them actually made the wrong decision at 18 and ended up going into careers they didn't really want to,' he said.

Mr Griffiths described these gap-year travellers as having a 'quarter-life crisis' and noted that 'their hunger for travel is pretty huge.'

The average spend of this market over the course of their travels is £6,000 to £9,000 each, he added.