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A major new survey of the Tourism Industry released by the Tourism Alliance today shows that the EU Referendum result has caused an increase in both inbound and domestic tourism (‘staycation’) bookings.
The survey of over 500 tourism businesses throughout the UK found that 18% of inbound tourism businesses (businesses receiving visitors coming to the UK from overseas) and 21% of domestic tourism businesses have experienced an increase in forward bookings since the referendum on June 23rd.
Also encouraging is that tourism businesses are looking to increase their levels of investment in their product. Almost 20% of domestic tourism businesses are looking to increase their current investment levels in the expectation of increasing domestic tourism numbers.
Bernard Donoghue, the Tourism Alliance Chairman and Director of the Association of Leading Visitor Attractions, welcomed the findings. “These result show the strength and responsiveness of the UK tourism industry and our ability to provide employment and growth for local economies throughout the UK.”
However, he cautioned that “while the industry was expecting a short-term boom in both domestic and inbound tourism over the next two years, the long-term prospects of the Tourism industry are dependent on the UK securing a deal with the EU that will protect the ability of UK and EU residents to easily travel. We will also want to ensure that our industry, which is heavily dependent on workers from the EU, has the opportunity to recruit and attract the workers we need”.
To help achieve this, the Tourism Alliance will be presenting a draft Tourism Exit Strategy to the Culture Secretary, Karen Bradley, at a round table meeting next week. This document will identify the main tourism-related issues that will affect the UK tourism industry and provide the industry’s view as to what actions the Government should take in order to maximise the future potential and growth of the sector.
A Powerpoint Presentation of the Full Survey Results is Available Here.
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