Published earlier this year, Walpole’s tourism manifesto, What it’s Worth: Enabling the Return of the £30bn High-End Tourism Sector, identified the UK as having been Europe’s number one high-end tourism destination pre-pandemic. Given that affluent international visitors to the UK spend 14 times that of mass tourists – making a powerful contribution not only to the country’s world-leading hotels, but to the whole high-end ecosystem of culture, entertainment, and retail – and with the knowledge that our high-end tourism offer generated more than 30% more revenue than France, Italy or Spain, and two thirds more than either Germany or Switzerland, we see high-end tourism as a crucial growth driver for this country. In the light of the Chancellor’s recent decision to reverse the decision to reintroduce tax-free shopping, Walpole asked its members to share their thoughts on the value of the high-end visitor, and to let us know what they were doing in their own businesses to drive the appeal for this important customer group.
If your company has been affected by the reversal on the reintroduction of tax-free shopping and you would like to be featured in this series, please email [email protected]
"Historic Royal Palaces is an independent charity. So, whilst we report into the DCMS, we’re self-financing and look after six of the UK’s greatest palaces - Tower of London, Hampton Court Palace, Kensington Palace, the Banqueting House on Whitehall, Kew Palace, and Hillsborough Castle.
"In 2019, we had revenues of £110m; revenues collapsed to £15m in 2020. We had built up £40m in reserves but still needed a loan of £40m from the Cultural Recovery Fund to invest in new galleries and improvements.
"Last year we had 1.45m visitors and this year we’re projecting 2.7m. The Platinum Jubilee was good for tourism and the King’s Coronation will be even better, but pre-Covid we had 5m annual visitors, so we still have a long way to go.
"Many of our customers are international, including 75% of visitors to the Tower of London. We’re seeing good numbers from North America, but not so good from Europe.
"Pre-Brexit, European school pupils (Germany, France, Spain) could use ID cards or a group passport. Now they all need passports, which is affecting school numbers. Tourism is ultra-competitive. So, a group of tourism-related businesses in London have pooled our money to ask for match funding from the Mayor and central government to run a campaign in North America and Europe this summer.
"Cities like New York are spending big in the UK to promote themselves. If we are to attract much-needed high spending we must do the same."
