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UKinbound counts cost of collapse in international visitors over Christmas
The collapse in international visitors will cost the UK economy up to £2.5 billion over the Christmas period, Ukinbound estimates.
Last December, just under 3.5 million international visitors came to the UK contributing around £2.5 billion through spending in shops, restaurants, hotels, and tourism destinations.
Since March, the Covid-19 crisis has brought export industry inbound tourism to a near standstill, with a 76% fall in international visitors throughout 2020, and key markets such as the USA and China closed almost entirely.
UKinbound says inbound tour operators and destination management companies (DMCs), who are responsible for bringing in over half of all international visitors, are on the brink with 60% fearing that their business will be unable to survive the crisis.
Their collapse will hamper the UK’s economic recovery which is why UKinbound is calling for the creation of an Inbound Tourism Resilience Fund.
Ireland and several EU countries have already announced a set of specific support measures for the industry, but Westminster have yet to come up with targeted support, and the rate relief and grants the Chancellor promised in March have still not been delivered.
The association is also calling for the Government to work with industry to introduce rapid and pre-departure testing, alongside the urgent introduction of regional travel corridors to key markets such as the USA, where there is strong evidence of pent-up demand for travel to the UK.
CEO Joss Croft said: "These figures are a stark reminder of the brutal impacts of Covid-19 on the inbound tourism sector, that faces not only a bleak Christmas, but a bleak future without targeted government support."
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Lisa
Lisa joined Travel Weekly nearly 25 years ago as technology reporter and then sailed around the world for a couple of years as cruise correspondent, before becoming deputy editor. Now freelance, Lisa writes for various print and web publications, edits Corporate Traveller’s client magazine, Gateway, and works on the acclaimed Remembering Wildlife series of photography books, which raise awareness of nature’s most at-risk species and helps to fund their protection.
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