The UK government has been accused of “sabotaging” the country’s tourism industry as analysis found spending by international visitors was more than 2.2 billion pounds (US$2.9 billion) below pre-pandemic levels last year.
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A report by the London-based World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC), which represents the sector, found people visiting the UK spent 40.3 billion pounds in 2024, down 5.3 per cent from 2019.
Julia Simpson, president of the WTTC and an adviser to Tony Blair during his time as prime minister, attributed the decline to measures she described as “deliberate policy choices” which have created “barriers to travel”.
These include introducing electronic travel authorisations – digital permits – the lack of tax-free shopping and increasing air passenger duty.
Simpson told the PA news agency: “We’ve not got back to where we need to be [on spending by international visitors], whereas the rest of the world has,” adding that the UK was losing value share compared to other European partners.
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“This government is all about growth. They’re looking at how to make money. They’re trying to save steel plants. They’re looking to see what can we do about our water companies,” Simpson said.
“Yet here we have a private sector enterprise – travel and tourism – contributing 10 per cent of UK GDP, creating jobs, but we are not prioritising it in any way,” she added.