Five-star hotels in London are currently “full of the Gulf”, according to Tricia Warwick, director Asia Pacific, Middle East, Africa for VisitBritain.
Warwick told Arabian Business the most valuable market to the United Kingdom’s tourism industry is well on the way to a full recovery after travel restrictions were lifted earlier this year.
She said: “What I’m finding now, because I’ve been in the UK the past couple of weeks, five-star London is full of the Gulf – the UAE and Saudi. They couldn’t get in during the summer because of the red list scenario, but the minute the doors opened, then they were worried about protocol, vaccination. Now we’ve eased all that and made it a lot simpler, honest to goodness it’s wonderful and late in the season, but the hotels in London are full through to Christmas, with who? The Gulf.”
The UK reported 471,000 global inbound visitors in the first half of this year, when the country was closed to many markets as a result of Covid safety restrictions – including much of the Middle East.
However, for the UAE in particular, where there are around 100,000 expats living (according to British Embassy data), that changed in September when it was finally removed from the controversial red list for travel by the UK’s Transport Secretary, Grant Shapps.
“The red list came off and then Emirates started to ramp-up the flights. They had to ramp-up faster than they planned because the demand was significant,” said Warwick.
“The minute we came off the red list and the vaccination protocol changed, the Gulf got on the plane,” she added.
In the eight weeks after the announcement that the UAE was being removed from the UK red list, flight tickets issued from Britain to the Emirates climbed from 9 percent to 85 percent of 2019 levels, according to figures obtained from flight analytics firm ForwardKeys.
Tickets issued from the UAE to Britain in the same period climbed from 6 percent to 58 percent of comparative 2019 levels.
Furthermore, from November 22, the UK will recognise Covid-19 vaccines on the World Health Organisation’s Emergency Use Listing, adding Sinopharm, China’s Sinovac, and India’s Covaxin to the country’s approved list.
Passengers who have been fully vaccinated and have received their vaccine certificate from one of over 135 approved countries and territories are no longer required to take a pre-departure test, day eight test or self-isolate upon arrival in the UK.
Instead, passengers will just need to pay for a lateral flow test to take before the end of their second day, post-arrival.
Warwick said: “The fact that London is full at the moment with our GCC friends is fantastic.”
The Gulf market is the most valuable market to Britain, because visitors from the region spend the most and stay a longer time – average spend is £2,150 and stay, 12 nights. While Warwick revealed that approximately £54,000 worth of tourism spend adds one job to the visitor economy in the UK.
She said: “That in itself is a wonderful statement of the contribution that the Gulf can make to the visitor economy of Britain.”
However, as countries in Europe experience a surge in new Covid cases – Austria went into its fourth national lockdown on Monday, with people allowed to only leave home for work, essential shopping and exercise through mid-December – Warwick issued a note of caution.
“I feel, for the moment, all is well. But it needs careful watching as you know how quickly that can change,” she said.
Warwick was speaking as VisitBritain plans to launch a series of ten new itineraries designed to entice more visitors from the Gulf.
She said: “Because we’ve had this pandemic environment where everything has been very strange, we want to welcome people back to Britain. Yes, come back to the cities, like London, Manchester, Birmingham, Edinburgh etc, but what about the lesser known stuff and spreading yourself out when you’re visiting us.
“We thought that the best way to do that is to show some sample itineraries of best practice. So we sat down as a team from the different nations (VisitScotland, Tourism Northern Ireland and VisitBritain) and worked out some perfect itineraries, whether that’s three days, five days, seven days or longer.”
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