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First-time buyers investing in a space holiday?

Young people buying homes today may be investing in a future trip into space. Predictors of space holiday trips anticipate the cost will fall to the equivalent of a quarter of the cost of the average family home by the time today's buyers become empty-nesters.

Reduced costs of space travel and the high speed of orbital flights will make 'space holidays' more accessible for UK holiday-makers - at only £575,000 and just three and a half hours away, the equivalent of a train journey between London and Carlisle.

The World Travel 2050 Report by travel insurer Churchill – reveals that space travel will be a serious option for those in search of a new kind of adventure holiday. Although people are already planning to venture to the edge of space (sub-orbital space where a few minutes of weightlessness is possible) by 2008, a truly orbital space holiday (free of the Earth's gravitational pull) at a space station is only set to become a reality by 2050.

With the average house price soaring to £2 million in 2050, the cost of a week long holiday on an orbital space station will be £575,000 - less than a third (29%) of the average price of a home in the UK. Putting this in today's terms, where the average house price is £188,944, the cost of a space holiday would be the equivalent of £54,793.

Churchill's World Travel 2050 Report, issued in conjunction with think tank The Centre for Future Studies, reveals that three quarters of a million Britons will be able to afford the trip. But even then, it will be a holiday only for the most adventurous of explorers:

• In the first instance, touronauts (tourist astronauts) will need to travel to Russia – the most likely base camp for launch
• A week long trip to space will mean a month off work and a great deal of preparation – touronauts will need to spend two weeks in training for the trip, and one week recovering
• Similar to jet lag, 'space lag' will mean that the touronaut is likely to suffer from dizziness, weakness and swelling of the body, as well as dehydration and constipation
• The space station will offer a back-to-basics style holiday with cramped, smelly and noisy conditions
• Touronauts will be expected to help out with day-to-day duties on the space station, including gardening in the hotel vegetable and plant garden to supplement diets. When all duties are done, holiday-makers will have time to enjoy zero-gravity football, space walking and helping to record and monitor stars and galaxies

Mike Ketteringham, Head of Churchill Travel Insurance, commented: "Although there are currently people planning to pay $200,000 for a sub-orbital space flight in 2008, we are looking further afield to a time where holidays to orbital space hotels are possible."

"A holiday at a research station with hotel facilities won't be about luxury or high-tech accommodation, but will give people the opportunity to be one of the first people in the world to spend time in space."

The World Travel 2050 Report also reveals that technological advances will provide the opportunity for substantially faster travel. In fact, an orbital flight to a space station with hotel facilities will take just three and a half hours.