Chunnel sparks tourist boom
The opening of the Channel Tunnel has triggered an interest in visiting the UK among many Continental Europeans - and not only among those using the Chunnel itself - industry experts have found.
Since last autumn, when the Channel Tunnel opened to tourists, the British Tourist Authority's (BTA) office in Paris has been bombarded with enquiries about holidays in the UK, not only where a journey through the Chunnel is involved.
"The publicity surrounding the tunnel has been great for the UK - it has focused attention on us and encouraged more people to come," said a spokeswoman for the BTA.
"It has also had a knock-on effect and increased travellers on flights and ferries," she said.
"Enquiries at the BTA's Maison de la Grande Bretagne in Paris have greatly increased since last year. In March this year we were getting 4,000 to 5,000 visitors a week, compared with less than 2,000 between 1993 and 1994," she added.
The British Incoming Tour Operators Association (BITOA) has found that London hoteliers, in particular, have benefited from a boom in business since the Chunnel opened.
The organisation's business figures out next week look set to show a big increase in business in London compared with a year ago.
"Early indications from our business barometer for the first quarter of this year show a 5% to 6% increase in business in London hotels on the previous year," said BITOA chief executive Richard Tobias.
"It's difficult to estimate how much of this increase is because of the tunnel but my gut feeling is that at least 1% of the increase is due to it," he said.
Latest figures from the London Tourist Board (LTB) also suggest the Chunnel has increased visitors to the UK.
In the year to February, visitors to the UK from the Continent were up 10% compared with the year before, whereas visitors from North America were up just 4%, the LTB figures reveal.
