Britain’s tourism agency predicts first signs of recovery as pandemic impact eases

Britain’s official tourism agency predicted on Saturday the first signs of a slow recovery in 2021 for overseas visits to the UK.

Overall, VisitBritain forecasted 16.9 million inbound visits for 2021, up 73 percent increase from 2020. But it would be less than half of the 40.9 million visits Britain saw in 2019.

Inbound visitor spending was forecasted to reach 11.9 billion U.S. dollars in 2021, up 59 percent from 2020. It is less than a third of the all-time spending high of 37.6 billion dollars in 2019.

The forecast shows a gradual increase in the value of inbound tourism from January to March 2021 with a step-change heading into Easter and the spring, if national COVID-19 restrictions are eased as expected, particularly from short-haul European markets.

Tourism Minister Nigel Huddleston said “this forecast shows our tourism industry can look ahead to 2021 with renewed optimism for recovery. We are committed to bringing the inbound tourism sector back to full strength. Let there be no doubt about this government’s support for tourism.”

VisitBritain Director Patricia Yates said “UK tourism businesses usually welcome tens of millions of overseas visitors each year with those visitors spending billions, supporting jobs and local economies right across the country.”