London bookings up despite terror attacks
The weak pound is outweighing any impact of the recent terror attacks in London, according to the latest data from ForwardKeys.
Based on the analysis of 16 million booking transactions a day, forward bookings for long-haul international arrivals in London are 14% ahead of where they were at the beginning of July last year.
For London arrivals between July 1 and October 31, the Americas are currently 21% ahead and Asia Pacific 14% ahead.
Only the Middle East is lagging behind (by 20%), which ForwardKeys attributes to a fall in the oil price and the timing of Ramadan, which fell earlier this year.
It says tourists are flocking to the UK capital because, on average, it’s now 9% better value.
The growth in bookings is impressive because, when benchmarked against its European competitor cities, London has the biggest market share of long-haul bookings for arrival between July and October, 12%, as against 9% for Paris and 7% for Rome.
"This is an obvious and clear demonstration of how currency fluctuations affect travel, even in the face of other significant factors," said Olivier Jager, ForwardKeys co-founder and CEO,
"London is great value at the moment and people are springing at the opportunity for a holiday, costing less than they might have anticipated. It’s also testimony to London’s appeal as a destination and excellent news for all those businesses involved in selling London and the rest of the UK as a destination."
Bev
Editor in chief Bev Fearis has been a travel journalist for 25 years. She started her career at Travel Weekly, where she became deputy news editor, before joining Business Traveller as deputy editor and launching the magazine’s website. She has also written travel features, news and expert comment for the Guardian, Observer, Times, Telegraph, Boundless and other consumer titles and was named one of the top 50 UK travel journalists by the Press Gazette.
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