Due to the uncertainty in Brexit the visitor spending in the UK slumped by 7 per cent and the EU tourist stayed away with inbound traveller’s spending falling sharply in 2018.
The Brexit pledge that Britain would “ out-compete other major tourism destination” did not hold true.The UK’s tourism deficit is bigger than ever and is estimated to be £22.5bn because of the slump in revenue.
The pro-Brexit MPs lined up to enthuse about the benefits for the UK tourism of leaving the European Union after the EU referendum.
Sheryll Murray, Brexiteer and Conservative MP for South East Cornwall had stated in a parliammetary debate in October 2016 that Brexit will enable their wonderful tourism industry to thrive further still.
Nigel Huddleston, Tory MP for Mid Worcestershire, said that one of the plus points of Brexit and the weak pound was that it made visits to the UK comparatively more affordable.
Tracey Crouch, the-then tourism minister who is now calling for a no-deal Brexit stated that the government’s tourism strategy would be to help Britain out-compete other major tourism destinations to welcome more international visitors than ever before.
However, according to the Office for National Statistics the figures for 2018 revealed a fall in the visitor numbers and a slump in earnings from them. The tourism balance of payments deficit was bigger than ever.
As compared to 2017 there was a 3 per cent fewer overseas visitors last year which represented 1.2 million travellers. Together they had spent 7 per cent less showing a drop of £1.6bn.
The payments deficit of the tourism balance had excess spent by the UK travellers abroad as compared to the income from foreign visitors to Britain . This stood at £22.5bn.
The director of VisitBritain, Patricia Yates, said that last year was the second highest year on record after a stellar 2017 for inbound tourism to the UK, both for the number of visits and for spending.
However there has been a slow-down from Europe with research showing concern on the impact that the uncertainty of Brexit is having for visitors from the EU. She went on saying that VisitBritain is working very hard to reassure visitors that our message of warm welcome remains.
The overnight visits in London was 19.1 million, it was disproportionately ahead of other cities, Edingburgh took the second place with 92 per cent and had fewer overseas visitors.Manchester took the third place.
Considering the outbound visitors from the UK , Spain took the prime spot with 15.6 million followed by France and Italy.
Tags: Brexit, patricia yates, VisitBritain
