Britain’s travel and tourism industry is declining due to its bad summer and strong currency value, but there are chances to benefit from the 2012 Olympics.
As per the official figures showing the “flat lining” of foreign tourists in 2007’s initial eight months, tourism in the UK went down in the significant weeks of this August, according to The Independent.
According to the Office for National Statistics, foreign tourists took around 3.24 Million visits to the UK in August 2007 compared to 3.7 Million trips during the same period in 2006. The tourism industry during January and the initial weeks of September showed flat result at around 22 Million visitors.
In 2007, the British summer was gloomy, as it began with number of floods. This is one of the chief reasons for decline in tourist influx. Besides, the value of pound being stronger than dollar and currencies from other countries also affected the UK tourism industry. The country’s tourism also suffered because of a number of ‘holiday abroad’ schemes with low travel costs, and wide ranges of exotic destinations available. This ‘holiday overseas’ will definitely affect the country’s domestic tourism sector.
VisitBritain, a national organization, warned that if investment by the government doesn’t increase, UK’s tourism market might lose around £2 Billion. But the UK could make profits of about £2.1 Billion from the tourism industry surge during 2012 Olympics, as per the data that Oxford Economics supplied to Visit London and VisitBritain.
Christopher Rodrigues, the Chairman for VisitBritain, said that the government should invest more in the tourism industry, particularly for the “once in a lifetime opportunity” that the games are offering to the industry, reported BBC news.
He further added, “The growth of Britain's inbound tourism industry is increasingly dependent on visitors from countries like China, the Czech Republic, India and Poland. The Government must continue to invest in marketing Britain as a destination in traditionally high-spending countries where Britain is in danger of losing its 'brag factor'".
A research analyst at RNCOS said, “The global competition is giving ‘unprecedented pressure’ to the travel and tourism industry in the UK. But it looks like the UK’s government is resolute to squander the profits from the London Olympics - they delayed in publishing their tourism strategies, and also failed to provide with enough funds to ensure its success. The government must pay heed to the warnings, as it going to miss out ‘2012 Olympic Games’ tourism benefits. It should take strong measures to come out of this problem soon”.
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