Brexit impact is temporary, says trade
The historic decision by the British to sever ties with the European Union created different opinions around the world. In terms of tourism, it is still too early to predict the outcome from the UAE perspective, but trade wise it was opined to continue as
We are welcoming visitors from the GCC to Britain and we are expecting this summer to see more GCC nationals visiting as we continue our activity in market to promote Britain as a favorite holiday destination. Our global marketing campaign — Home of Amazing Moments — will encourage more people to come and visit Britain. Our latest figures show strong growth from the UAE in the first quarter of 2016, underpinning the best-ever first quarter for total inbound visits. The Office for National Statistics results show that from January to March this year visits from the UAE were up 15 per cent to 77,000, the strongest first quarter on record, with spend also up 9 per cent to £105 million. We will continue to drive a strong value message coupled with great quality to ensure we attract more GCC visitors and with favorable currency exchange rates also helping matters, we expect tourism from the GCC to Britain to have a great performance this year.
The Brexit vote has triggered much uncertainty—financial and otherwise. As leaders in the UK and the EU work to establish a new framework for their relationship, one certainty to guide them is the need and desire of people on both sides of that relationship to travel and trade. Air transport plays a major role in making that possible. There were 117 million air passenger journeys between the UK and the EU in 2015. Air links facilitate business, support jobs and build prosperity. It is critical that whatever form the new UK-EU relationship takes, it must continue to ensure the common interests of safe, secure, efficient and sustainable air connectivity.
From a logistical perspective there will be no change to travel to the UAE as a result of Brexit. The UK is not part of the Schengen zone and post their separation from the EU there will likely be no practical difference at all to EU or UK citizens visiting the UAE. In the short term we are likely to see fairly persistent sterling and euro strength against the dollar as political and the resultant economic uncertainty is likely to persist until at least the end of this year. However, I don’t see the likely drop in reviews to be as steep as the losses on the LSE and other regional stock markets as Europeans still love their sun and Dubai’s ongoing presence and appeal may support relative strength in three and four-star markets, niche and super high end, but the bulk of five stars may face a challenge in an already competitive market.
Brexit will have an impact on Dubai Tourism Figures from the UK simply because of the negative impact on sterling which will make the destination more expensive for the UK residents.However, I believe this will, at least partially, be offset with the huge increase of less expensive hotel accommodation in the imminent future here in the UAE. This scenario could also be helped; at least this year, by families who had planned vacations from early in the New Year. Credit card usage could be a key factor as families use this medium to pay for holidays.