Tourist numbers are down

Leisure industry blames the Government

Travel Insurance News - 12/03/2008

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Recent figures have shown that the number of tourists travelling to the UK has slowed and has caused some leisure industry leaders to attack the present government for its lack of investment. Visitor numbers have increased to an all time high of 3.29million during 2007 but the growth trailed off during the latter 6 months of the year. Visitor numbers, therefore, only grew by 1% over the whole year.

The director of the Tourism Alliance said "Ten years of underfunding marketing has reduced overseas visitor growth to a sub-standard 1 per cent, downfrom a recent annual average of 8-9 per cent and far short of the 6 per cent growth in global tourism during 2007." Bosses of some of the largest leisure companys launched a Take Tourism Seriously campaign last Novemberin an effort to get the Prim Minister to reverse an 18 per cent cut in the tourism budget. The Office of National Statistics says that tourist numbers from the US fell by 6 per cent last year and sited the weak dollar as a further factor.

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