UK Faces £22bn Fall in Global Visitor Spending.
The assessment by the World Travel & Tourism Council calls for an urgent end to “stop-start” quarantine measures.
Britain faces losing £22bn in international visitor spending this year after COVID-19 resulted in a collapse in global travel, according to a report. The assessment by the World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC) also estimated that nearly three million UK jobs supported by the sector were at risk in a “worst-case” scenario.
It called for an urgent replacement of “stop-start” quarantine measures with test-and-trace programmes to help rebuild consumer confidence in travel. The numbers are based on a forecast that international visitor spending would fall by 78% this year amid continuing uncertainty about travel restrictions designed to halt the spread of COVID-19.
WTTC analysis found that such spending totalled £28.2bn in 2019.
The predicted fall would translate to £60m less a day going into the UK economy.
WTTC chief executive Gloria Guevara said it “could take years to recover” from the slump and that it may also threaten London’s position as a global hub for business and leisure travel. She added: “We urgently need to replace stop-start quarantine measures with rapid, comprehensive and cost-effective test and trace programmes at departure points across the country. This investment will be significantly less than the impact of blunt quarantines which have devastating and far-reaching socio-economic consequences.”
“Targeted test and tracing will also rebuild consumer confidence to travel. It will enable the restoration of vital ‘air corridors’ between countries and regions with similar COVID-19 case rates.”
It comes days after a warning from ABTA about the impact of the pandemic on the outbound travel sector – covering travel agents, tour operators and airlines – with an estimated 39,000 jobs lost so far and more likely to follow without government intervention.