TravelMole Guest Comment: Impact of riots on UK tourism
Adrian Lawes of CD-Traveller.com gives his views on how the riots in the UK will affect business.
"Initial figures seem to suggest last week's riot had only a minimal impact on overseas visitors, with the European Tour Operators Association claiming only 330 cancellations, representing less than 0.2% of bookings. It claimed the impact would be short-lived, but we aren't helped by the fact that the riots are still making headlines in countries around the world.
Even worse, the decision by Prime Minister David Cameron to hire a US law enforcement expert to help tackle gang violence will keep the story in the minds of people across the United States, one of the UK's major overseas markets.
America’s CBS prime time news bulletin carried the news as one of their main stories on Saturday night and many Sunday newspapers in the US also ran the story.
Ongoing in-fighting between the police and politicians, with each criticizing the other for the way the riots were handled is providing more fodder for the overseas media. The New York Times has run stories referring to “Britain’s Forgotten Class” and a headline on Germany's Spiegel Online read: “Riots Reveal the Decay of British Society”. Handelsblatt, another German publication, said that “society was baring its hideous face.”
Some of reports in the foreign press have given the impression the whole country has been affected. Le Monde in France said that England was in flames and Liberation talked of the disunited kingdom.
When Alex Salmond complained on BBC Radio Scotland that the media was lumping Scotland in with the riot areas by referring to them as UK he was howled down by Scottish opposition spokespeople. Tourist officials in cities and towns completely unaffected by the riots could make the same complaint as he did.
Thankfully the public have short memories.
Take Thailand as an example. They had civil disturbances in Bangkok at the turn of 2009/2010. They received world-wide coverage as flights were disrupted and visitors had difficulties. That they were largely confined to Bangkok and tourists only faced some flight disruptions was not the way the press reported matters. This affected the number of visitors holidaying there. Yet before the year was out, the numbers bounced back and the Thai tourist officials – and tour operators – think of it as old, irrelevant news.
Visit Britain, John Penrose and inbound tour operators must be hoping the same bounce-back will apply here.
Adrian Lawes, CD-Traveller
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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