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London (pte027/18.07.2005/13:48) - Since the 7th July terrorist bombings in London that killed 55 and injured hundreds of others, Britain's tourism industry has bounced back from a minor lull. Travel organisations maintain that visitors haven't cancelled their plans, and are still flocking to the city.
However, experts are not sure what the mid-to-long term impact on the economy will be.
Zoe Shurgold, a spokeswoman for Visit London http://www.visitlondon.com , the capital's official tourism organisation, said, "It's far too early to make any predictions" about the long-term consequences on Britain's tourism industry. "Any predictions that have been made so far can't be taken into account too much," she added.
"There may be some downturn over the next few weeks but we expect any impact to be very limited and for a short duration," said Stephen Dowd, chief executive of Ukinbound http://www.bitoa.co.uk , Britain's inbound tourism industry trade association.
Ukinbound and other bodies in the tourist sector have commissioned a series of studies on the repercussion of the attacks in the industry. The first report will appear in about six seeks.
The World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC) said the number of overseas visitors travelling to Britain in 2005 could be more than half a million less than the 31 million tourists who were predicted to arrive this year.
It is important, says WTTC's president Jean-Claude Baumgarten, that the government help to rebuild visitor confidence and for no further attacks to occur.
Economics forecasters have said that the bombings could cost Britain up to 3 billion pounds (4.35b euros) this quarter. A quarterly fall in in British gross domestic product growth of up to 0.2 per cent is also possible, said Jan Rudolph, head of the risk department at the London-based World Markets Research Centre.
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