Backpacker travel insurance customers planning a trip round Europe may find that new identity cards offer them a cheap alternative to a passport.
According to travel association Abta, rolling out identity cards nationally could be good news for holidaymakers as they would be sufficient for all trips within the European Union.
The cards are likely to cost around £30 to buy, compared to an adult passport priced at £77.50.
In the first passport fee rise in the UK since 2007, the Identity and Passport Service and Foreign and Commonwealth Office recently announced the price would be increased from a current level of £72 for a document valid for ten years.
Sean Tipton, spokesperson for Abta, pointed to evidence that the majority of Britons' holidays tend to be within Europe.
"In the long term, if identity cards prove successful and they are rolled out for everybody, then it will be a cheap way to go abroad," he explained.
Downunder - providing competitive
cheap travel insurance in the UK for over fifteen years.