Overseas visitors flock to UK in Brexit tourism boost

TOURISM in Britain is set for a Brexit boost as we outperform the rest of Europe, a report revealed yesterday.

The World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC) predicted that the sector will grow in the UK for at least the next two years in the wake of the referendum vote to quit Europe.

It said tourism in the UK is expected to “hold up well” in 2016 and 2017. It added that tourism will this year grow by 3.6 per cent, a much stronger performance than the rest of Europe.

The WTTC said: “Europe will be challenged by lower visitor spend, but will still grow by 2.2 per cent.”

For France the forecast has been downgraded from 2.9 per cent to 1.1 per cent growth following the spate of terrorist atrocities there.

But the WTTC said: “Global Travel and Tourism continues to register strong growth despite challenges from terrorism, political turmoil, global economic developments and the Brexit decision.”

Tourism is a major industry in the UK, accounting for 9.6 per cent of all jobs in 2013 according to Deloitte.

In that year the sector employed 3.1 million people and was worth £127billion or nine per cent of the UK’s gross domeestic product.

The WTTC said tourism is doing well in Britain partly because the weaker pound post-Brexit is attracting more overseas visitors and encouraging more Britons to holiday at home. It said: “Weaker domestic spending growth will be offset by higher spending in the UK by international visitors as a result of the favourable exchange rate.”

The WTTC said that longer term tourism in the UK may dip. It said that in 2018-2020, after the UK has left the EU, the boost from the weaker pound is likely to wear off.

By 2020 the WTTC expects the UK tourism industry to have 75,000 fewer jobs than forecast in its annual update at the start of the year.

There were fears Brexit would damage tourism but yesterday tax-free shopping firm Global Blue reported a year-on-year seven per cent increase in tax-free shopping in the UK last month.

Earlier this week the Tourism Alliance said that Brexit had led to Britons spending an extra £1.4billion on staycations.