Europe here we come... ...on holiday, that is, as bookings rise despite the weakness of sterling
THE slump in the value of the pound has failed to dent British enthusiasm for foreign holidays, with early bookings for this summer’s getaway sharply up on last year.
The overall number of Britons heading abroad is also set to rise this year – just as a record number of tourists are expected to arrive in Britain, lured by cheap prices here.
Abta, the Association of British Travel Agents, told The Mail on Sunday that British bookings for overseas holidays were looking strong for 2017, with current sales for the summer 7 per cent higher than on this time last year.
The weak pound has not deterred Britons from booking holidays in the Eurozone, with Spain, Greece and Portugal all attracting higher numbers of bookings, partly as travellers steer clear of the Eastern Mediterranean amid security fears.
An Abta spokesman said: ‘Many people who left booking late last year found limited choice and availability in the Western Mediterranean due to the surge in demand for holidays in this region. So they are booking early to secure their first choice of destination or dates.’
He added: ‘A drop in business to traditionally popular destinations such as Tunisia and Egypt, following high profile terrorist incidents and changes to Foreign Office travel advice, has driven a growth in demand for holidays in the Western Mediterranean, in particular in Spain, Malta and Portugal. Greece is also seeing strong demand.’
Kurt Janson, of the Tourism Alliance, said its figures showed a quarter of Britons planned to spend more on their holidays this year than last, with a similar proportion saying they were planning to visit a country they’d never been to before.
Although it expected Spain to be the year’s top performer, with Portugal, Italy and Cyprus also seeing strong early bookings, Cape Verde, Croatia and Mexico were at the top of the ‘rising destinations’ list.
Figures from the national tourism agency VisitBritain reveal a similar story in the opposite direction. It reported that inbound flight bookings for this month were 11 per cent up on January 2016. Bookings for the next three months are also up 10 per cent on this period last year. The falling pound has helped make the UK more attractive to foreign tourists. A VisitBritain spokeswoman said that at the end of December, Britain was 11 per cent more affordable for Chinese visitors than a year before.
She added: ‘It is a great time to come to Britain with our hotels, shops and attractions all offering excellent value for overseas visitors right now, particularly for our higher spending, long-haul markets China and the US.’
December’s figures are a welcome reversal of the trend at the beginning of 2016, when sterling was still riding high before June’s vote to leave the European Union.
Figures from the British Hospitality Association issued last month showed a dip in tourist numbers to Britain in the first 11 months of last year.
However, research on tourist spending in the UK over Christmas – and figures for bookings by foreign tourists in 2017 – are much more positive.
Bookings from China are up 81 per cent in January 2017 on a year ago, while bookings from the US are up 16 per cent for January and up 26 per cent for the three months from January to March compared with the same period the year before.
VisitBritain has forecast that 2017 will be a record year for inbound tourism. Its chief executive Sally Balcombe said: ‘These figures not only underpin a longer term pattern of growth for inbound tourism, one of our fastest growing industries, but also demonstrate its growing importance as a key driver for economic growth and jobs.’
The number of overseas visits to the UK is set to rise to 38.1 million in 2017, up 4 per cent on 2016, which saw 36.7million visits.
As well as the cheaper pound, tourists are likely to be drawn by events such as the Edinburgh Festival, which is celebrating its 70th anniversary, the World Athletics Championships, held in London, and the Women’s Rugby World Cup in Belfast, all held in August, as well as the International Cricket Council’s Champions Trophy, held in Cardiff, London and Birmingham in June.
While foreigners are expected to spend more in the UK, so are the ‘staycationers’. Janson said: ‘There is large growth expected in the domestic market as well.’
He forecast a 14 per cent rise in British day-trippers, with spending up 10 per cent, an extra £5billion for the year overall.
Data released last week by Worldpay, the credit and debit card payment processor, showed the boom was already having an effect, with UK high street retailers benefiting from an influx in tourists, who spent £725million in the UK in December. Worldpay found that owners of cards registered in Hong Kong spent the most, closely followed by those from the US, UAE, mainland China, and the Continent.
Worldpay’s chief marketing officer James Frost said: ‘The influx of free-spending tourists we saw in December will have been a welcome boost for retailers looking to balance the books.’