The director of Visit England has suggested that concerns over travelling abroad and rising airfares due to the conflict in Iran could lead to an increase in domestic stay-cations on the Yorkshire Coast this summer.
Recent hostilities involving the US, Israel, and Iran have prompted the Foreign Office to issue new travel advice covering thirty-one countries and there are signs that the global uncertainty is already influencing the decisions of British holidaymakers as they look ahead to their upcoming holidays.
According to a recent survey conducted by Harris Poll UK on behalf of the trade magazine Travel Weekly, a significant number of travellers are reconsidering their getaways. The research, which gathered responses from one thousand British adults, reveals that up to forty per cent of holidaymakers who had intended to travel abroad during the Easter break are now changing their plans.
The director of Visit England, Andrew Stokes, has indicated that it is currently too early to determine the exact impact the war in Iran will have on the broader tourism sector in the United Kingdom.
However, he noted that if the ongoing conflict leads to an impact on airfares and heightens concerns over travelling internationally, it is highly possible that this could drive an increase in staycations across the country this summer.
"We run a perception survey every month where we talk to a cohort of people who are potential short break takers who could take a short break in England.
For some lengthy period now, the top concern that people have has actually been the economy. The top concern or reason they give for why they might not take a break has actually been personal finance or the economy.
With regards to the global situation, it's probably for us a little early to be making predictions. A lot will depend on the next few weeks and how long it continues."
Andrew Stokes added that if there is a downturn in the number of Brits heading abroad this summer that could be to the benefit of areas like the Yorkshire Coast which could see an increase in stay-cations:
"For inbound tourism, very important markets of Australia, India, or the Arab Emirates themselves, who are very important and high spending markets, those markets that generally hub through the Arab Emirates, whilst we've not seen a drop in bookings yet according to industry, they have seen a drop in searches, which is normally a precursor to bookings.
And we could find that our inbound tourism is impacted by that, and that's even before you start considering the cost of fuel.
But there is certainly potential opportunity or opportunistic approach that we could take to how we try to see whether we can maximise domestic tourism."
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