Following the decision on Brexit in June of this year the UK tourist industry has recently encountered a boom in ‘staycations’ with extra takings said to be at £.2.4 billion.
Millions of Brits have opted for holidays in the UK due to costs of holidays outside of the UK and the fall of the pound in the financial markets which according to economists has created somewhat of a boom for the tourist industry here in Great Britain.
While the surge in UK holidays had already been predicted the findings of the leading bodies have been confirmation of a rise in both visitors to the UK as well as staycations.
A 10% drop in the value of the pound against the euro means that a holiday in a Eurozone country will cost a family of four £245 more now than it would have done before Britain voted to leave the EU. This is based on figures from Travel Supermarket, which found that British holidaymakers will take an average of £513 spending money per person in 2016, or £2,052 per family of four. The UK is now benefiting from this money being spent right here.
Tourism boards across the UK are reporting record-breaking numbers of bookings and inquiries over the past few weeks, suggesting workers will pump billions of pounds back into the UK instead of spending their cash abroad.
Visit East Anglia said inquiries and bookings were up by around 25pc in popular resorts such as Norfolk in recent weeks, and Yorkshire also reporting a sharp increase in interest.
At the same time as the rise of the staycation, the fall in the value of the pound has led to a surge in interest from overseas tourists. Search engine Cheapflights said that in the few days after the referendum, flight searches to the UK from the US doubled, with increases of 61% from China, and 49% from Canada. Similarly, online travel agency Opodo reported a 38% rise in searches for flights to the UK from US markets and 20% from Asia.
Of course following Brexit sadly, there was been some trepidation from foreign tourists and so this years has seen an investment in marketing campaigns to boost tourists from Europe most famously was London’s #LondonIsOpen campaign to reassure European travellers that they will be welcome in the UK following a wave of anti-europe sentiments from the public and politicians.
Visit Cornwall has been working with local accommodation providers to host travel writers and bloggers from German-speaking countries and the Netherlands. “Perception is all, particularly in tourism, which is a discretionary activity,” said chief executive Malcolm Bell, who received an email immediately after the vote saying, “I’m never coming to Britain again.”
Luckily overall Brexit has not stopped European visitors completely and we saw an increase of 31% of flight searches from Europe.
It looks as though staying in the UK rather than going abroad is going to maintain its momentum for quite some time still giving the hospitality industry here a most welcome boost.
With the growing trend in staycations now is the perfect time to raise your profile and attract new customers. To make the most of this boost to the UK tourist industry click here for more information.
