Even though package holiday sales rose by 5.1% to 16.7 million in 2015, the total number of overseas breaks increased by 9.4% to 42.2 million over the same period, according to figures released by the Office for National Statistics (ONS).

Total spending on all overseas holidays added up to £26.3 billion in 2015 including £11.5 billion on package holidays – the first time it has exceeded £25 billion since the pre-recession year of 2008.

ONS figures show that package holidays accounted for 39.6% of all international leisure trips last year – down from a 41.1% share of the market in 2014. UK holidaymakers still purchased 808,000 more overseas package holidays in 2015 than they did in the previous year.

Packages have been steadily recovering since 2010, with the exception of 2012 when sales dipped by 1.8%, and have been growing at an average annual rate of 3.1% over the past five years.

They reached their lowest point in 2010 when Britons purchased 14.3 million package holidays – by comparison, 18.95 million packages were sold in 2006.

The ONS figures also showed that the average amount spent on a package holiday was £687 in 2015, which was same as in 2014 and was also higher than the average for all holidays of £623 per trip.

Spain continues to be the top destination for UK residents with 13 million visits in 2015 – an increase of 6.1% on the previous year – followed by France with 8.8 million visits and Italy at 3.5 million.

Abta said that the 9.4% rise in overseas travel in 2015 was “the largest annual rise in nearly 20 years”.