Europe can expect fewer visits from Brits as Euro rise reduces the value of the pound
People who are part of the UK travel industry over the last few years will have unquestionably witnessed the most challenging time since the early seventies and the three day week. All business has ups and downs but the current economic climate has meant many unwelcome aspects that are all repressing travelling abroad. With unemployment on the up and the fear of job losses, cut backs on overtime and reduced working week have obviously made people very reluctant to spend. To make matters even worse the pounds fall compared to the Euro and the USA dollar has made holidaying outside the UK even more pricey.
With the pound in decline it is an excellent aspect to help UK exporters by making their commodities less costly to foreign buyers and entice travellers to visit Great Britain which in turn helps the domestic economy and finally by encouraging people in the UK to holiday in the UK because the price of holidaying abroad is now so much more costly..
Historically, as a percentage of population no other country sees so many holidaymaker taking a holiday abroad and this is already evident in reduced profits typically seen in such countries as Italy, Portugal, Greece, Bulgaria, Norway, Romania, Germany, Scotland, Egypt. Indeed it has been forcast that for 2009 more than a million less Uk tourists will visit Spain and given Spain’s high reliance on tourism income this will be a massive blow to their economy at all levels, causing businesses to close and increase unemployment.
The fall of the pound adding to the recent recession has already damaged income for companies providing travel services for the UK. Airport companies, travel agents and airport hotels are all reporting lower figures for the current year and because of the fall of the pound 2010 will only get tougher. All these companies will have to take account of these figures and you will be right in expecting to see cheaper Gatwick airport parking and Gatwick hotel parking prices.
Another problem for people involved is how to try and stay one step ahead of the exchange rates, for instance a foreign hotel may have to announce their prices now, without knowing which way the rates are going to go, but if the price is set in pounds and the pound continues to fall then they could be in danger. Or on the other hand the travel company agrees the price in euros they could also loose out on this contract.
This entry was posted on Thursday, November 26th, 2009 at 4:28 am and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.