Brits abroad are overwhelmingly likely to be spending their holidays in Europe, meaning almost 30m leisure jaunts a year made cheaper and easier by the EU.

Enjoying cleaner beaches and being able to phone a taxi or hotel without racking up enormous bills are just the cherries on the cake for holidaymakers. Travelling to most EU countries has been rendered easier thanks to the single currency – as has the Schengen border-free zone (plenty of eastern EU destinations would have required a visa application a few decades ago).

Meanwhile, regulations have bolstered protection for tourists: from the original E111, now the Ehic card, which provides free healthcare and has made travel insurance cheaper, to EU261, which forces airlines to compensate passengers when they are delayed. Since October, the EU has also ensured that holidaymakers buying DIY package deals online aren’t left stranded if a firm goes bust.

Above all, many more destinations have become accessible due to the low cost of flights. Budget airlines such as easyJet and Ryanair have made clear that the revolution in air travel, allowing companies to set up networks across the continent, could only have happened under EU agreements.

Some Britons might rue that the EU has made Europe’s lands less exotic – but this is tempered by the ending of restrictions on the amount of goods they can carry home from foreign supermarkets. One holidaymakers’ institution was certainly lost under the EU: duty-free shopping within Europe. A silver lining of Brexit would be the possible return of the cross-Channel booze cruise.