The UK government has been accused of “sabotaging” its own tourism industry after new figures revealed that international visitor spending fell by more than £2 billion in 2024 compared to pre-pandemic levels, despite a global recovery in travel.
According to the World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC), overseas visitors spent £40.3 billion in the UK last year, a 5.3 per cent drop from 2019. The council warned that the shortfall reflects deliberate policy decisions that have created barriers for international travellers and damaged the UK’s competitiveness as a global destination.
Julia Simpson, president of the WTTC and a former adviser to Tony Blair, said the government had failed to prioritise a sector that contributes 10 per cent of UK GDP. “This government is all about growth. Yet here we have a private sector enterprise, travel and tourism, contributing 10% of UK GDP, creating jobs, but we are not prioritising it in any way. We are sabotaging ourselves,” she said.
Simpson pointed to several government actions she said were holding back recovery, including the removal of VAT-free shopping for tourists, the rise in air passenger duty, and the introduction of electronic travel authorisations (ETAs) — a £16 charge now required for most European visitors. She also criticised the decision to slash VisitBritain’s promotional budget by 44 per cent, from £18.85 million to £10.57 million at the start of April.
Retailers, particularly in the luxury sector, have echoed the WTTC’s concerns. Burberry’s chief executive has previously said that ending the VAT rebate has placed the UK at a competitive disadvantage for high-spending global shoppers. Simpson added that Britain is losing market share to European neighbours that continue to offer incentives to international visitors.
In her comments, Simpson stressed the importance of storytelling and destination marketing in drawing travellers to the UK’s regions, citing the cultural appeal of figures like Harry Potter, Jane Austen and Richard III. She warned that the government’s current approach risks undermining tourism’s potential as an engine for regional economic growth.
While the WTTC report, produced in collaboration with Oxford Economics, showed that travel and tourism contributed £286 billion to the UK economy in 2024 — up 3.9 per cent from 2019 — the lack of spending from international tourists signals a missed opportunity.
A government spokesperson defended its strategy, stating that the UK remains one of the most visited countries in the world and that international tourism continues to generate billions for the economy. The spokesperson added that VisitBritain’s campaign “remains an effective tool driving economic growth,” and confirmed that a new national visitor economy strategy would be launched in the autumn, with the ambition of attracting 50 million international visitors annually by 2030.
Nonetheless, industry leaders fear that unless the government reverses some of its most damaging policies, particularly around taxation and visitor access, the UK’s tourism recovery will continue to lag behind that of its global peers.