Discover the UK Travel Market

The UK international travel market is undoubtedly one of the most lucrative in the world. UK citizens have a high propensity to travel overseas with many taking multiple trips annually. Despite major global economic problems in 2009, the UK economy – the fifth largest in the world – has recently emerged from recession with economic growth forecast for 2010 and beyond.

The United Kingdom is a country of approximately 62 million people and contains four countries, namely England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. As far as travel marketing and sales coverage is concerned, the Republic of Ireland is often covered from offices in the UK although it should be remembered that Ireland is an independent country.

Historically most UK leisure travelers used to take an annual summer vacation in France, Spain or its islands and to a lesser extent Italy, Greece and Portugal. Additionally, the USA and Canada have remained remarkably buoyant in terms of the number of UK visitors over the last three decades and should continue to attract even more UK visitors during the next decade. Significant additional long-haul leisure travel markets have also emerged in the last two decades, most notably westwards to Mexico and the Caribbean and eastwards to the Indian sub continent, the Middle East and Far East and also Australasia. Africa – mostly Egypt, Morocco, Tunisia, Kenya and South Africa – have also enjoyed tourism growth from the United Kingdom during the last decade and it is predicted that this trend should continue its upward path provided that the political situation in these countries remains stable.

The continuing development of cost efficient long haul aircraft – especially the Airbus A380, Airbus A350 and the Boeing 787 Dreamliner – will ensure the continuing development of UK long haul tourist markets, especially to North America, the Caribbean and South America as well as Africa and Asia. Thus countries in South America such as Peru, Chile, Colombia, Bolivia, Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay and Ecuador should all see growth in the number of international visitors during the next decade. Again, this prediction clearly depends on the sustainability of a stable political and economic situation in the respective countries. It is also predicted that UK visitors to the Caribbean will also continue to grow, with British visitors being more adventurous and visiting some of the ‘untraditional’ islands such as Dominica and the Virgin Islands as well of course as continuing to visit the ‘mainstream’ Caribbean islands such as Jamaica and Barbados.

In short, the United Kingdom is a very attractive market for overseas travel suppliers since UK inhabitants are generally affluent by comparison with most people in other countries and on average enjoy at least five weeks vacation annually and are very keen to travel abroad whenever they can.  Furthermore, the United Kingdom has a sophisticated and efficient airline industry with a multitude of global routes offering good frequency and attractive fares. It is also important to mention in this context that although the £ pound sterling exchange rate with the Euro has weakened in recent times, the pound is still relatively strong against the US dollar which means that it is likely there will be a percentage reduction in leisure travel from the UK to mainland Europe but an increase in leisure travel to long haul countries such as North & South America plus the Caribbean which mostly use the US dollar or currencies that are closely linked to the US dollar

Despite frequent predictions to the contrary, the UK travel industry is still the main distributer of leisure and tourism travel products although increasing numbers of UK consumers nowadays book and pay for leisure travel arrangements online – especially when booking Low Cost Carriers (LCCs) such as easyJet and Ryanair. Online companies such as LastMinute.com and Travelocity have experienced massive growth over the last decade and continue to be a key sector in leisure travel product distribution in the UK. However, there are still more than 5,000 Association of British Travel Agents (ABTA) agencies in business throughout the country plus hundreds of tour operators. On the business travel front, whilst there has been consolidation in the market, several key companies such as Hogg Robinson Group (HRG) dominate the market and work in cooperation with corporate travel departments, many of whose members belong to the Institute of Travel Management.

As far as outbound international group travel is concerned, there is an important and growing MICE sector – Meetings, Incentives, Conferences/Congresses & Events – as well as a large number of specialist group travel operators. It is important for overseas travel suppliers to seriously consider joining industry associations – such as Latin America Travel Association (LATA), the Caribbean Tourism Organisation (CTO) and the Visit USA Association (VUSA) – to maximize promotional opportunities for their products. It is also recommended nowadays that serious consideration is also given to participation in nationwide trade and consumer travel shows as well as specialist events.

Some useful information about UK International Travel

2008	Number of UK overseas  visits in 2008	Amount of money spent by UK visitors in UK £ millions
UK–USA & Canada	4,629,000	£4,229 millions
UK–European Union (EU)	54,424,000	£23,470 millions
UK–Non EU countries	9,958,000	£9,139 millions
UK-All the world	69,011,00	£38,838 millions

 

2008	Number of UK overseas  visits in 2008	Amount of money spent by UK visitors in UK £ millions
UK–Central/South America	325,000	£406 millions
UK–Mexico	334,000	£338 millions
UK–Jamaica	175,00	£165 millions
UK-Barbados	184,000	£195 millions
UK-Rest of Caribbean	588,000	£416 millions