Published on : Friday, March 8, 2019
The study shows that, even though the United Kingdom Travel & Tourism sector occupies the fifth largest spot in the world, its growth rate in last year was of 1% significantly below the world average of 3.9%.
In 2018, the total size of the UK Travel & Tourism economy increased by 1% to £234 billion, which makes the UK the fifth-largest Travel & Tourism economy world over by economic contribution behind the United States (£1,200,436 billion), China (£1,135,885 billion), Japan (£276,705 billion) and Germany (£259,497 billion); but ahead of Italy (£206,895 billion), France (£199.997 billion), and Spain (£158,789 billion).
The 1% growth rate was below the global average of 3.9% and the European Union average of 2.7% respectively. In China (7.3%), India (6.7%) and Thailand (6%), particularly strong growth was noticed.
Doubts over Brexit and a near 10% drop in spending by foreign visitors led to the slump of growth in the UK.
Spending by overseas visitors declined by 9.7% from £31.5 billion in 2017 to £28.4 billion in 2018 respectively WTTC carried on the study which represented the global private sector of Travel & Tourism. It produced the research on the economic contribution of the sector for almost 30 years.
Growth for this year is predicted to be 1.4%, again below the global (3.6%) and European Union (2.4%) averages.
To quote Gloria Guevara, President & CEO of WTTC, “Post-Brexit, Travel & Tourism stands to be one of the major sectors to drive a recovery in the British economy. Its current growth rate of 1% is dramatically below the 6.2% recorded the previous year and demonstrates the huge potential of our sector to be a driver of economic growth.”
Tags: UK travel & tourism