Brexit benefit: lower pound boosts tourism to Britain

Many British businesses have become cautious as they try to gauge the impact of the country’s 2019 departure from the European Union. But there’s one industry that has so far clearly reaped a windfall from the Brexit decision — local tourism.

The sharp fall in the value of the British pound since last year’s Brexit vote — it’s down around 15 per cent against a range of currencies — has made the country, which his widely considered one of the more expensive places to visit, more affordable.

That means the pound in a tourist’s pocket now goes further in what travel experts Euromonitor International say is the world’s eighth most popular destination for overseas visitors in terms of revenue.

“It’s been quite positive from European countries and from the U.S., all over,” said Jo Bachelor, head of sales at Encore Tickets, which sells one in five tickets in London’s West End, 45 per cent of which are to overseas visitors.

Overall, she said, the firm’s international sales for shows like “The Lion King,” “Wicked” and “The Phantom of the Opera” are eight per cent ahead of budget, and would have been higher were it not for security concerns raised by the terror attacks in London, which weighed particularly on travellers from Japan and school trips from Europe. Encore’s performance this year is illustrative of what is going on in British travel and tourism — a Brexit bounce.

Official figures released Friday showed overseas residents made 3.9 million visits to Britain in August, up five per cent on a year earlier. They also spent 2.8 billion pounds (US$3.7 billion), up three per cent. So far in 2017, according to the Office for National Statistics, visitor numbers have risen eight per cent to 27.1 million while tourist earnings have swelled 10 per cent to 16.4 billion pounds.

The lower pound should be a boon to exporters, but not all sectors are enjoying the same rewards, partly because many firms, particularly those in manufacturing, have seen their costs rise as imported goods like energy have become more expensive because of the currency’s fall.