The government has been accused of “sabotaging” the UK’s tourism industry, after figures showed international visitors spent more than £2bn less last year than they did before the pandemic. The World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC) – which found in a new study that people visiting the UK spent £40.3bn in 2024, down 5.3% on 2019 – said that the government has made “deliberate policy choices” that had created “barriers to travel”. The policies singled out include the lack of tax-free shopping, increasing air passenger duty and introducing electronic travel authorisations. “We’ve not got back to where we need to be [on spending by international visitors] whereas the rest of the world has,” said Julia Simpson, the president of the WTTC, a former adviser to Sir Tony Blair during his time as prime minister. Simpson said: “This government is all about growth. Yet here we have a private sector enterprise, travel and tourism, contributing 10% of UK GDP, creating jobs, but we are not prioritising it in any way. We are sabotaging ourselves.” Retailers including the boss of luxury brand Burberry have said that the scrapping of a VAT tax break for tourists has put the UK at a “competitive disadvantage for global shoppers”. “The UK is losing value share compared to other European partners,” said Simpson, speaking to the Press Association. She also criticised the decision to cut tourism authority VisitBritain’s budget by 44% this year. On 1 April, VisitBritain’s “Great Britain and Northern Ireland” destination promotion programme budget was cut to £10.57m, from £18.85m last year. On the same day, air passenger duty for many visitors to the UK increased. A day later, the requirement for the £10 electronic travel authorisation (ETA) was imposed on all European visitors, apart from the Irish, and has since increased to £16. “You need to sell the UK,” said Simpson. “It’s really important that you create stories about the UK so that international visitors come to all our regions. You need to sell Harry Potter. You need to sell Jane Austen. You need to sell Richard III.” A government spokesperson said that VisitBritain’s campaign “remains an effective tool driving economic growth”. “The UK is one of the most visited countries in the world and international tourism drives billions into our economy,” said the spokesperson. “We are supporting the continued growth of this industry and will be launching a national visitor economy strategy this autumn to help meet our ambition to welcome 50 million international visitors a year to the UK by 2030.” The WTTC study, produced in collaboration with consultancy Oxford Economics, also found that travel and tourism contributed £286bn to the UK’s economy in 2024, up 3.9% from 2019.
Author: Mark Sweney