Tourists no longer come to one of Europe’s most famous destinations

France, Italy, Spain and England have always been the most sought after countries in Europe, with the most famous sites and busiest airports. But while France (100 million), Spain (85 million) and Italy (57.25 million) broke tourist records in 2023 compared to 2019 before the corona virus, England experienced a 7 percent decrease last year with 37.6 million visitors, compared to 41 million in 2019.And to understand how bleak this figure is: aside from Luxembourg, only Luxembourg experienced a decrease in Europe, and it was only 0.1 percent. And so, while almost everywhere on the continent is fighting over-tourism in the last year, in England they want and expect the number of tourists to increase.

And how did it happen that fewer people flock to the Queen’s Palace, London Bridge, Big Ben and the picturesque towns and beaches outside the capital city? According to a CNN investigation, there are several reasons for this. One of the main ones is frequent strikes on flights, trains and other types of public transportation, this is around the terms of employment in the kingdom. This affected quite a few tourists who were unable to come or who canceled their arrival for fear that something would go wrong.

In addition, the tax exemption for tourists was canceled, quite a few of the beaches in the kingdom were declared polluted due to sewage flowing into the sea, a 20 percent increase in crime and especially the exit from the European Union, which occurred in 2020, just before the corona, led to the fact that tourists from Europe need a passport to arrive, which many of the residents do not have in union

Patricia Yates, CEO of VisitBritain, points out that Britain’s marketing slowness after the Corona, along with its slow exit from the restrictions, meant that quite a few countries grew at its expense in 2022, a trend that continued in 2023. In the Anholt-Ipsos Nation Brand Index in 2023 , which ranks 60 countries on a variety of characteristics, the UK received the lowest score ever for welcoming guests, a measure called – “Welcome”.

According to Yates, it can still be corrected, as tourism is a trendy field that can rise as quickly as it can fall. “The strength of the tourism industry is that you can scale quickly – without building a lot of infrastructure for it,” she says.

Yates argues that the marketing budget should be spent on attracting influencers and travel consultants to London, which has been campaigned under the slogan “the more successful version of New York” and to lesser-known destinations. She also thinks that most family trips in the US (a major target audience for tourism in the Kingdom) are motivated by the choices of the children, so they are the ones to focus on, when these days Bridgerton is a brand that should be strengthened for the sake of the cause.