• Recovery from pandemic likely to be slow for London tourism,
LONDON — The cobblestones are deserted at the Tower of London. A biting wind blows and there is no sign of life. Even the storied ravens nowhere to be seen.
England’s top paid attraction, which normally draws more than 3 million visitors a year, has been closed for all but a dozen weeks since the pandemic began and international tourism to London came to an almost-complete standstill.
The quiet has been surreal for Amanda Clark, one of the tower’s famous resident guards known as Yeoman Warders or Beefeaters. The affable Ms. Clark, a retired sergeant major, lives for interacting with people: directing tourists, telling them stories, posing for their selfies. Before March 2020, she would have been doing that happily every day as crowds streamed into the attraction, also home to the Crown Jewels.
“It’s really quite extraordinary, how something so big and popular is just so quiet and empty,” said Ms. Clark, 46. “Don’t forget, weare classed as a prison. And these past few months have felt quite claustrophobic because there’s just been nobody here.”
Plagues, fires, war — London has survived them all. But it has never had a year like this. The coronavirus has killed more than 15,000 Londoners and shaken the foundations of one of the world’s great cities. As a fast -moving mass vaccination campaign holds the promise of reopening the city, The Associated Press looks at the pandemic’s impact on London’s people and institutions and asks what the future might hold.
After three national lockdowns, London’s tourist attractions and other hospitality businesses are making tentative plans to reopen in mid-May — the earliest the government says international travel can resume. But deep uncertainty about COVID-19 remains. With quarantine requirements and travel restrictions still in place everywhere and Europe battling a new surge of infections, many are bracing for another bleak year.
For London’s tourism industry, which employs one in seven workers in the capital, the pandemic has been a body blow. With hotels, attractions and leisure shopping in a near-total shutdown, the industry’s contribution to London’s economy plunged from $21.6 billion in 2019 to just $4.1 billion in the past year, according to VisitBritain, the national tourism agency.
Even national treasures like the Tower of London have struggled. Historic Royal Palaces, a charity that runs the tower and other heritage attractions, has said it expected a $137 million short fall because of COVID-19.
Many expect a slow recovery, particularly because London always has been reliant on international tourism. Over half of all consumer spending in the West End — home to the city center’s bustling shops, restaurants, pubs and theaters — typically comes from European and other overseas visitors.
In normal times, short-haul markets like European countries would generally be expected to recover faster than long-haul ones like the U.S. and Asia. But with the threat of coronavirus variants in Europe and the slow vaccine rollout on the continent, experts say tourists are highly unlikely to return in earnest until autumn.
“We can see that other countries, particularly our European neighbors who tendto be the biggest markets for us, we can see them going into third waves of COVID,” said Patricia Yates, director of strategy and communications at Visit Britain.
“There is pent-up demand; people do want to come to Britain. But at the moment, that simply isn’t possible.”
Nationally, officials forecast inbound tourism to generate just over $8.2 billion this year, compared with more than $38 billion in 2019. Heathrow Airport has said it does not expect passenger flows to return to 2019 levels until around 2024.
A key question for the recovery this year is whether cumbersome quarantine rules can be eased and replaced by an efficient system of vaccine certificates for travelers, Ms. Yates added.
Stuart Procter, who manages the luxury Stafford Hotel near central London’s St. James’ Palace, would usually go on marketing trips to America, his core market. This year, he hasn’t bothered.
For many, planning a vacation to London now is impossible because there’s no certainty big events like the Wimbledon tennis championships in July can go ahead.
“They’re not coming. There’s no activities. … There’s nothing open for them to come to,” Mr. Procter said. “We’ve missed our cream, we missed our summer. I don’t think we’ll see any green shoots until the fourth quarter, if I’m honest.”