UK & Ireland Fit for royalty


UKinbound’s chairman Mark McVay shares news of Brexit strategies, Britain’s destination booms and what’s coming up in 2019


How are the UK’s source markets performing?


Overall, 2017 was a successful year. The trend reported by Visit Britain over the past five years has been one of steady growth and this has continued, with visitation growing by 4% to a record 39.2 million in 2018. The value of spending also increased by 9% to £24.5 billion – a new record.


Our top 10 source markets have been the same every year since 2005, with one slight alteration in 2017 – Poland overtook Italy to claim seventh place. France tops the table with 3,956,000 visitors, just ahead of the USA with 3,910,000, and then Germany with 3,380,000. Collectively, visitors from these countries account for 29% of total visitation.


Which destinations have boomed this year?


Scotland was the busiest destination for one of our tour operator members, which they attributed to the increased availability of flights to Edinburgh and the marketing undertaken by the destination. They were also seeing strong demand for Liverpool. Another of our members found that Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s wedding has stimulated a rise in requests for Windsor in tailor- made itineraries, while Kent, with its stately homes and gardens portfolio, has been popular. They also found that London continued to hold its own with the US inbound market, and the surrounding regions are becoming increasingly popular for overnight stays.


What trends are you recognising?


Although shopping will always be a priority for lots of our international visitors, we know that increasingly inbound (and outbound) visitors are keen to have authentic, immersive and memorable experiences. Many of our tour operator members tell us that their visitors are keen to experience life as a local and get “under


54 07.11.2018


London’s Carnaby Street is still a popular draw


the skin” of the places they are visiting rather than just passing through.


What is UKinbound’s biggest news of 2018? In January, we commissioned Canterbury Christ Church University to undertake a detailed piece of research about modern language skills and their role and impact within the UK tourism industry. Our report, which we launched in June, confirmed a growing language skills gap caused by a combination of Brexit and the decline of language uptake and training in the


35%


UK. The research also


highlighted a lack of capacity


Edinburgh is benefi ting from good fl ight connections


in the UK’s education system to meet the shortfall in higher-level language skills that are badly needed by the UK’s inbound tourism industry.


Who are


UKinbound’s members?


■ Accommodation providers ■ Destination management organisations ■ Attractions


■ Service providers ■ Tour operators


23%


What are the top reasons to visit the UK in 2019? Over the past couple of years, the UK government has helped to fund some exciting new experiences and itineraries for international visitors. The England Originals project consists of five new routes that take visitors from London straight into our historic cities, while The Great West Way will join up many of England’s iconic


9% 10% 23%


destinations and attractions


Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s wedding sparked a surge of interest in visits to Windsor


Mark McVay


along a corridor west of London. These include Windsor, Stonehenge and Avebury Unesco World Heritage Site, Castle Combe, Lacock, Bath, Bristol and the Cotswolds.


What is the UKinbound Brexit campaign? In June we began a major programme of government and parliamentary engagement with three key aims: to raise awareness of the importance of inbound tourism to the UK economy; to demonstrate the urgent need to prioritise the inbound tourism industry in the Brexit negotiations; and to press for early clarification from the government about the arrangements for access to the UK for both EU tourists and EU tourism workers after Brexit. An early highlight of the campaign was our Parliamentary Reception in June and the launch of our language skills research, followed by a summer of meetings between members and their local MPs to stress the positive impact of tourism. We will keep pushing for the best deal for our industry.


What are you investing in for 2019?


With Brexit on the horizon, 2019 will be a crucial year for our industry and we will continue to work with the government to ensure the inbound tourism industry’s needs are highlighted and safeguarded. We have an exciting year of events planned including our Annual Convention in Glasgow, Arabian Travel Market in Dubai and, of course, our stand at World Travel Market London. These will accompany our networking evenings, seminars, familiarisation trips and B2B workshops. Plus, at the end of this month we are excited to welcome our new chief executive Joss Croft.


■ UKinbound is exhibiting on stands UKI200 and UKI400


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