Brexit , Business top the agenda at WTM London

Travel Biz News / WTM —

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson hailed the achievements of the country’s tourism industry in a welcome message to WTM London, the world’s largest travel trade event taking place at ExCeL London.

Addressing the inauguration ceremony of WTM 2019 on November 4 , Johnson spoke of the UK’s success story in the 10 years since he first opened the event, when he was then Mayor of London. Since then, he said, tourism had boomed “from Skye to Skegness, from Brecon Beacons to Bognor”.

Johnson added: “Our capital city London has become the number one tourist destination in the world. The British Museum attracts more visitors than one European country I am too diplomatic to identify.”

Following Johnson’s message to the WTM Leaders’ Lunch, Nicky Morgan, Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, took highlighted tourism’s £68 billion contribution to the UK economy. The industry, she said, accounted for 1.6 million jobs and last year, the UK attracted 38 million visitors who spent £22.7 billion.

Morgan acknowledged Brexit was an issue for the industry. She told the audience: “We are going to be leaving the European Union, but we do not want to put up borders that keep people in or out. We want to make it as frictionless as possible to visit – EEAA or Swiss nationals will not need a visa.”

Meanwhile , Atout France and easyJet signed a major three-year partnership at WTM London to boost the numbers of British and German visitors to France, according to a press release issued by WTM secretariat.

WTM London’s Headline partner Sri-Lanka also took to the stage during the event outlining its objective to ‘build back better’ six months after the terror attacks that decimated its tourism industry.

Manisha Gunasekera ,High Commissioner in London, said : “Exactly one year ago at WTM we launched So Sri Lanka, our brand identity, which has now become so much identified with Sri Lanka.”

Brexit, politics and the travel trade was a major topic of discussion on first day of WTM London 2019 – the event where Ideas Arrive.

David Goodger, managing director of Tourism Economics, moderated a session called Brexit, Trade Wars and Populism and said there is a one in three chance of a worldwide recession into 2020. “We don’t see a recession absolutely on the cards,” he said.

“The Eurozone remains soft and Germany is underperforming. There is a downturn in the European economy. Germany is seeing negative trends in terms of production. We are keeping a very close eye. It’s looking like a real issue for the region.”

Goodger said UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s newly agreed Brexit deal is looking worse than the deal agreed by his predecessor Theresa May in terms of its effect on the UK economy and worse than no Brexit at all.

Fellow presenter Natalie Weisz, senior manager, research and analysis at hotel data company STR, said one in three worldwide travellers are delaying travel plans because of uncertainty over Brexit.

Other factors that are likely to create issues for travel in the future are the US-China trade war, which ‘has escalated but has further to go’, according to Goodger, as well as concerns over sustainability and climate change.

John Sullivan, Head of Commercial at the Advantage Travel Partnership, and Tom Jenkins, Chief Executive of ETOA, the European tourism association,threw light on ‘The Effect of Brexit on Staycations’.

They both agreed that careful planning on behalf of hotels, tour operators, businesses and  anyone involved in the travel industry was the best way to make sure that the industry remains as unaffected as possible by the political climate.

Nov. 5, 2019