London riots ‘no worse for tourism than a sick dog’
Tour operators suffered 330 cancellations for trips to London in the immediate aftermath of the recent riots, which represented less than 0.2% of all bookings, according to one organisation.
ETOA, which represents European tour operators, said this meant the violence had had no worse effect on bookings than a sick dog. It did not say how new bookings had been affected.
It said its members had over 38,000 people staying in London hotels this Wednesday and by lunchtime on Thursday they had received 330 cancellations for next week.
On the basis that each of these clients would have stayed two nights, this represented a loss of 660 bed-nights, or 95 cancellations per night over a week.
ETOA said the cancellations were less than the normal threshold for lost bookings. "People cancel for a myriad of reasons; the disturbances have, for now, proved as significant a factor as having a sick dog or flooding the bathroom."
According to ETOA, the impact of the riots had been reduced due to the fact that they occurred in "comparatively anonymous locations", no major landmarks were damaged and not many tourists were involved. It also pointed out that other major cities have also experienced riots recently.
"Such riots occur nearly everywhere. Paris, Madrid, Athens, Los Angeles, Moscow and Bangkok have all experienced rioting and looting. The significance lies in how a country is seen to deal with it," it said.
"To the fury of many in Britain, the images have been of the Police trying to contain the trouble. They have not violently confronted it. Images of property being damaged is very different from those of people being hurt. So the story of the last few nights, played out on television sets throughout the world, has been of an unarmed police establishing order.
"The story of the next few nights will be of the due process of law bringing suspects to account."
It emerged this week that VisitBritain was forced to pull its "You're invited" advert from the BBC website because it was running next to news footage of the London riots.
By Linsey McNeill
Linsey McNeill
Editor Linsey McNeill has been writing about travel for more than three decades. Bylines include The Times, Telegraph, Observer, Guardian and Which? plus the South China Morning Post. She also shares insider tips on thetraveljournalist.co.uk
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