Of late the recent terror attacks in London are surpassed surprisingly by the lowering valuation of the pound while foreign tourists have been pouring into the capital.
Bookings for international arrivals in London remain robust and are about 14% ahead of where they were, during the start of July 2017. Currently, the city is 9% better value on account of the strength of foreign currencies, as per a study by ForwardKeys that predicts future travel patterns made by the analysis of 16 million booking transactions per day.
US bookings are 21% ahead year-on-year.
On the other hand, Asia Pacific have been observing 14% rise in London arrivals between 1st July and 31st October. Only the region in the Middle East is quite behind, about 20% as compared to the same period in 2016. The lag is caused mainly owing to a decline in oil price adversely impacting Gulf economies and the timings of Ramadan that became low this year.
Compared with the other cities of Europe, London witnessed the highest market share of long-period bookings for arrivals in the period between July and October at 12% against 9% for Paris and 7% for Rome.
And, tourism from the BRICS nations like Brazil, Russia, India and China is soaring.
All of them reveal double-digit growth in forward bookings for London. Except India, their citizens have been displaying greater interest in London as tourist destination than the remaining portion of Europe.
Chile is portraying the greatest growth in forward bookings, 67% ahead that is followed by Brazil at 48%, Taiwan at 43% and China that us 35% ahead.
The total long-haul international tourist arrivals to London had risen by 16% in the first half of 2016 as compared to the same period last year. ForwardKeys research said that great boost had been sourced from the Americas with a 52% share of long-haul arrivals, that registered a growth by 19% and Asia Pacific with a share of 34% marking a rise of 14%.
This phenomenal growth was triggered by the falling of the sterling exchange rate representing its lowest levels in 30 years against the dollar in the middle of October 2016.
Olivier Jager who is the co-founder and CEO of ForwardKeys said that this trend is a clear indication of how currency fluctuations impact the travel industry even amidst the scenario of other critical influencers. He went on to add that at present London stands at a lucrative rank as people are struggling to leverage the weakening pound for relishing some really memorable vacations.
