Britain's inbound tourism industry is facing real challenges as international travel suffers from the impact of the global economic downturn, a latest survey released on Thursday said.
The figures from the International Passenger Survey showed that people won't just travel to Britain because the sterling is weak.
In the first three months of 2009, overseas residents made 6.3 million visits to Britain and spent just over 3.1 billion pounds (4.7 billion U.S. dollars), the survey said.
Before adjusting for inflation, there is no change in spending compared to January-March 2008, while the number of visits has fallen by 13 percent. Sterling was on average 29 percent weaker against the U.S. dollar and 16 percent weaker against euro in March 2009 compared to March 2008, it said.
"The figures illustrate the continuing challenges of maintaining Britain's popularity as a destination in the face of the global economic downturn and increasing competition from rival destinations," said Andie Dawe, recently appointed chief executive of the national tourism agency Visit Britain.
"Although these are traditionally lower months for inbound tourism, we know that a weak pound is not sufficient in itself to offset the full impact of the recession on international travel," Dawe said.
Britain has launched multi-million-pound campaigns throughout Europe and the United States to encourage travelers to come to Britain right now and take advantage of the country's current affordability.
Rises in unemployment in the United States and the eurozone have contributed to lower consumer confidence, which has clearly influenced leisure and business travel. Visits in the first three months of 2009 from European countries are down 7 percent compared to the same period of 2008.
Visits from other regions showed even less resilient to the current economic climate. Visits from North America are down 21 percent, and from non-EU countries in Europe down 29 percent in the first three months of 2009.
A fall of 24 percent in visits from new European Union member countries is particularly important as Britain has previously relied on growth from emerging markets in Eastern Europe as well as China, India and Southeast Asia to offset declines in more mature source markets.
Tourism supports 2.7 million jobs, 200,000 small and medium-sized enterprises and is worth 114 billion pounds, according to an independent report by Deloitte.
Analysts predict tourism could be among the first industries to lead Britain out of its recession. It is expected that adequate investment could deliver an extra 164,000 jobs and a real opportunity to grow to a 133-billion-pound industry by 2018.
Source: Xinhua
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