BHA travel monitor reveals ‘no post-European referendum tourist surge'
The number of leisure tourists coming to the UK dropped by almost 400,000 in the first nine months of the year compared with last year, according to the first British Hospitality Association (BHA) travel monitor.
Although the overall number of visitors is up by 700,000, the increase comes from a 3.8% rise in business travellers and an 8.2% increase in people visiting friends or relatives. There has also been a 5.5% increase in the number of people going abroad in the year to date.
In September the number of outbound tourists rose 10.1%, compared with the same month last year, despite post-Brexit expectations. Inbound visitors in September were up by 1.3% overall year on year, with business visitors up 6.6%.
The BHA Travel Monitor, which will be published monthly and quarterly, also highlights a year on year decrease in overall UK holiday spend by overseas visitors.
Ufi Ibrahim, chief executive of the BHA, said: "We have launched the BHA travel monitor so that we can provide, through detailed and structured analysis of passenger data, a true picture of hospitality and tourism performance. For instance our analysis of the increase in the number of incoming people up to the end of September shows that it is not because of more leisure tourists, which might have been the initial impression. There has been no post European referendum tourist surge."
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