Sponsored by
Foreign visitors staying away
OVERSEAS visits to the UK have dropped by five per cent in the last quarter as consumers continue to scale back spending.
The quarter-on-quarter figures, published by the Office of National Statistics also show that in the full year to June, total visitor numbers were three per cent lower.
Visitors from the United States were down eight per cent – most likely the result of the weak dollar – while European visitor numbers dipped by six per cent.
Hotels and restaurants in the UK are the worst-performing part of the UK's service sector, contracting by 1.2 per cent in the quarter.
Tourism industry spokesman Stephen Dowd, chief executive of UKinbound, said: "People in Europe are now starting to get worried about their own economies."
He said that long-haul tourism is already "struggling very badly" but that arrivals from France, Germany, Italy and Finland have all dropped in the last month or so.
Email to a friend
Print this page- Family mourn death of Glasgow ‘fight’ schoolboy
- Rangers takeover: Duff & Phelps threaten legal action against BBC
- Today’s youth not fit to be employed, says car firm Arnold Clark
- Rangers administration: Fans fear Duff & Phelps claims could scare off Green
- Rangers takeover: triple penalty punishment enough, says Johnston
- Alistair Darling leads ‘No to independence’ fight over tea and biscuits
- Scottish independence: SNP flip-flops over Nato
- Scottish Independence: SNP ‘won’t be Yes campaign’s only voice’
- Today’s youth not fit to be employed, says car firm Arnold Clark
- Scottish independence: ‘People here are best qualified to run Scotland’
Looking for...
Featured advertisers
Jobs
Search for a job
Motors
Search for a car
Property
Search for a house
Weather for Edinburgh
Saturday 26 May 2012
Today
Sunny
Temperature: 9 C to 20 C
Wind Speed: 16 mph
Wind direction: North east
Tomorrow
Sunny
Temperature: 12 C to 22 C
Wind Speed: 10 mph
Wind direction: North east
