UKinbound: 'Travel cannot afford 'stop-start' recovery'

"The industry cannot afford a stop-start recovery, as this would shatter international confidence in travelling to the UK," said UKinbound. "Domestic tourism will not make up the revenue gap left by international visitors. International tourists spend on average £685 a day in the UK, domestic tourists spend just a third of this."

UKinbound made its submission to the government’s Global Travel Taskforce on Friday (26 March). In it, it also called for quarantine to be ended for all but those arriving from high-risk countries.

‘Make or break’

Joss Croft, UKinbound chief executive, said: "We have one chance to get the reopening of international travel right and the prime minister’s announcement on 12 April will be make or break for the inbound tourism industry.

"How the taskforce communicates its findings and suggestions will fundamentally shape how successful the restart of international travel is.

"We 100% support a risk-based approach to reopening, but our industry simply cannot afford for just short haul to come back, or a stop start approach similar to what we saw last summer.

"There is confidence to visit the UK in markets such as the US, and there is only a short window of opportunity to maximise this competitive position."

UKinbound’s three foremost asks of government are for:

• A risk-based reopening framework – including both short-haul and long-haul travel and the removal of quarantine via the introduction of digitalised entry documentation;
• A bilateral travel agreement with the US – our most valuable inbound travel market, where there is significant pent-up demand to holiday in the UK by vaccinated Americans;
• A four nations approach to lifting restrictions – international visitors expect and want to visit multiple countries in the UK and different restrictions could mean a trip to the UK isn’t taken.