Tonight:
8°c
It's 10am on a damp weekday but Whitehall and Trafalgar Square are already awash with tourists. Families and knots of students swarm around the mounted soldiers at Horse Guards Parade, cameras clicking.
The ear catches snatches of French, German and Dutch but the most common language seems to be Italian.
In the square itself, hordes of European and Australian children (the latter identifiable by T-shirts and backpacks proudly declaring their land of origin) climb over Landseer's lions, ignoring both the drizzle and the blazer-clad man standing sheepishly on the fourth plinth, taking his turn in Antony Gormley's art project One & Other. The one accent you don't hear is American.
An umbrella-spangled group of about 20 Italians listen to a tour guide expostulating the history of Nelson and his column. Antonella Tabai, a middle-aged office worker from Palma, here for four days with her husband and mother-in-law, pauses briefly opposite Admiralty Arch.
“We are here to see the British Museum and the National Gallery,” she says. And to shop, I ask, now the euro is so strong? “Be quiet!” she hisses, pointing meaningfully at her heedless husband.
Cypriot student Ibrahim Emin tells me that “London is cheaper than it was, but still not as cheap as Turkey”, and that his family's chief objective while here is to visit the London Dungeon. An elegant Swedish couple ask directions to the City. “Habit brings us here,” says teacher Per-Arne Gustafsson, who's on his third visit with partner Ase Svensson, a physiotherapist.
“Swedes will always come here for fun, culture and shopping. Despite the rain. And as long as there are no bombs.”
Welcome to the European invasion. This summer London's streets and shops are awash with Italian, German and Dutch visitors. New figures from Visit London show that a whopping 217,000 French tourists visited London in the first quarter of 2009, an increase of 48 per cent on last year.
The Poles aren't just coming here to work but to holiday and shop: their numbers are up 60 per cent on last year. But one familiar tourist group is conspicuous by its absence.
The Yanks aren't coming. They may be overpaid and overfed but they are no longer over here. Visitor numbers from North America dropped by almost a quarter this year, the fall attributed by Visit London to the global recession and fear of swine flu. The amount spent by American and Canadian tourists and business visitors in London also dropped in the first quarter of 2009 by 11.3 per cent.
Travelex, the foreign exchange company, reports that the in-bound exchange of euros at Heathrow is up 10 per cent this year but dollar transactions by only two per cent. Are we seeing a triumph of tourist adventurousness by the old world over the new, of the strong single European currency over the ailing greenback?
I'm spending a day amid London's tourists to find out what the word is on the street. And what language it's being spoken in.
It appears the strength of the euro can be overstated as a lure to London. “It is still excessively expensive here, worse than Paris,” says Alain Chomel, the director of a Bureau d'Etude in Toulouse. He's here for eight days because his teenage daughter, a ballet student at the conservatoire in Toulouse, has won a summer school place at the Royal Ballet's White Lodge school.
So far they've visited the National Gallery, Tate Modern, the various attractions at County Hall, gawped at Big Ben and explored Hyde Park and Green Park, “and it's not finished yet”. Alain's wife is joining them at the weekend, and he has already bought her a leather jacket from Portobello Road, and himself some art books in Shepherd's Bush. “This is the best value,” he says, waving an Oyster card at me. “We do not have this in France.”
Surprisingly few tourists tell me they are here to shop, and the attractions they are here to see strike me as different from what they would have been 10 or 20 years ago.
Top of the list for most people are the British Museum and National Gallery, Tate Modern and the London Eye, the latter two having attained iconic status in less than a decade. Indeed, the South Bank has become a destination in itself.
Some old tourist stalwarts are still on the agenda. “Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, St Paul's, Tower Bridge,” recites Lucile Garandel, a student from Brittany (she says it is too expensive to go shopping), who has brought her printer boyfriend Michael Hamon to London for the first time. Although it remains London's premier tourist attraction, nobody admits to visiting Madame Tussauds.
Over at Covent Garden, I pause by the fruit stall Sharon Edwards has run since January on the corner of the (currently clown-free) piazza. “There are definitely fewer Americans this year, and I would say more French and Spanish,” Sharon opines. Has it changed her trade? “No. Whenever the performers are here, tourists will buy fruit, and they're all pretty friendly,” she says. “Except the Japanese.”
Walking through the market and up towards the Tube station, American voices are notably absent.
“£40 to visit the London Eye!” shouts an angry man from Frankfurt, who declined to be named or photographed. Engineer Fabio Saviani, from Reggio Emilia, stops for a chat. I tell him Italians seem the most conspicuous, and approachable, of Continental tourists. “Well, we're easy to spot: the way we dress, the way we use our hands,” he says.
By the Tube, handsome young theatre teacher Grzegorz Pohl from Warsaw is people-watching. He'd love to go clothes shopping, but “for Polish people it is not cheap here”. Besides, he has spent a lot of his money on tickets to musicals.
He's the first person to mention London's theatres. The Society of London Theatre does not classify tickets sold by nationality but staff at its half-price ticket booth on Leicester Square say they've had fewer American customers, and more French and Irish, this year, and that sales overall are holding up.
In the queue, I chat to Peter Williams, a retired theatre director from Sydney, who's on his 40th visit to Europe. “I've just done a river cruise from Amsterdam to Prague,” he tells me, “and there were only four Americans on it, where usually there'd be 10 times as many.”
I walk in a long loop, earwigging as I go. Four Danes are drinking a pre-noon pint outside the Spice of Life at Cambridge Circus. Two middle-aged Italian men brandish a map at me and ask: “Soho is exciting, yes?” (Well, yes.)
Oxford Street is home to languidly ambulant knots of German, French and Italian teenagers, although the proportion of Arab shoppers increases the nearer one gets to Marble Arch (the admittedly small visitor numbers from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates have almost doubled and almost trebled respectively this year).
Selfridges, by the way, has seen an increase in visitors from the eurozone and Ireland since the pound started to flounder last September but claims that levels of American shoppers remain stable.
There's a hint of a Texas accent as a man whisks his grandchild into Hamley's on Regent Street. But at Piccadilly Circus Nabil Ali, touting for business for Big Bus Tours, confirms that Yanks are thin on the ground.
A bullet-headed souvenir stall-holder who asked not to be named says he is delighted there are more Scandinavians around, “because they're the only ones who don't complain about the prices”.
Across the river, the throng by the London Eye is too thick and cacophonous to discern nationalities.
But Richard Smith, who has sold books and maps from his stall under Waterloo Bridge for 26 years, confirms that he's shifting fewer antique maps of the US, more for central and Eastern Europe. I head back to Leicester Square and encounter my first real, talkative Americans.
Tom and Julie Bentle are teachers from Chicago, both Anglo- and Europhile but both hampered by that peculiar American inability to pronounce “Leicester” and “Gloucester”. Julie was in London 10 years ago and is astonished by the crowds today.
Both of them are smitten by “the eye candy, the visual stimulation” of London, and after a few days here will head to Barcelona, Prague and Paris. They are pretty sure that economic rather than pandemic concerns are keeping their countrymen at bay.
“It's expensive to get here and expensive to stay here,” says Julie. “We're teachers, so we've got a lot of time off and we've been planning this for a long time, but I'm sure lots of Americans will look at the financial situation and decide a trip to London isn't worth it. Mexico is nearby and cheap if you just want to relax.”
Indeed. And an increased risk of swine flu might be a small price to pay for constant sunshine. After five hours beating the bounds of tourist London, I take a taxi through the now insistent drizzle back to the office, past Buckingham Palace, the Kensington Museums, and Hyde Park.
There is no shortage of continental tourists at any of these, despite the weather. We may miss the Americans but here's to the hardy visitors from the old world.
Reader views (21)
As a born and bred londoner,and an ex tour guide the main problem with visitors is that they look on the West End. Leicester Sq and Trafalgar Sq as LONDON when in fact it takes over two hours to cross London. I can enjoy a good day out for £5 visiting for free.Hampstead Heath for Kenwood House. Greenwich with the Maritime Museum,the market and Observaory.Four markets in the East End on a Sunday. also wander the City streets over the week end when it is quiet and see all the old buildings, The Monument and Wrens churches. Walk the Millenium Bridge to the South side and visit the New Tate. The British Museum. The Law Courts and Lincolns Inn and a hundred places more, all free. Just stay away from expensive eating houses,and scruffy hotels by getting B&B places in the suberbs,run by British folk at reasonable prices. Get an Oyster card for cheaper bus fares,if you are elderly show your senior citizens pass for reduced rates.
And try getting out of London by visiting the seaside resorts where English people build sand castles and play with their kids.
And above all stop comparing everything in England as it is back home, as you have come here to see a different country and it's way of life, Then you should go back home having had a good holiday and made a few friends.
Enjoy your stay, as you are welcome.
- John E Rayner, hemel hempstead
Im a British Asian, born and raised in London. Having read the comments I am completely annoyed and irritated at people having a pop at London. I've lived in NYC for 3 years -- its a dirty, claustrophobic, overpriced city where you have no access to quality news or media and the whole place is swarming with wannabes .... yet everyone always says I love NYC .
London has the best of all worlds - we have culture, arts, commerce, sports, history, greenery and people with personalities.
STOP MOANING AND START APPRECIATING THIS FABULOUS CITY LONDON
I LOVE LONDON
- Nadine, Fulham, London
Doug of London:
Fully agree! I first came to London as a student in the late 70s and instantly fell in love with it. It was such a wonderful city, unique, intoxicating .... really special, in any aspect. My last visit was a 1-day-layover while flying the world´s favourite airline (haha .. those times seem to be gone too) in 2005. Horrified by all those negative changes, I almost cried. I want my old London back!!!!!!!!!
- Dominik Von Muehlberg, Cologne, Germany
To Home Counties Frank:
As an American and wife who visit London once a year for a most pleasant two-week stay (we don't even consider vacationing anywhere else; Sherlock Holmes was right), we travel aboard a British-flaged carrier; stay in a British hotel; drink in pubs; dine in restaurants; take the tube, buses and cabs; shop everywhere from Oxford/Regency to Portabello/Petticoat; visit pay (as well as free) attractions; take in a play or two; and spend in the process a few thousand pounds. Multiply us by thousands and you get the answer to your "so what."
- J, Fredericksburg, Va. USA
"I never heard one cockney accent in the five days I was there on business. Where have they all emigrated to?" Essex, and long may they stay there. Glad to hear the end of cockney.
- Prototypical Englishman, Wormwood Scrubs
'a melting pot of despair.They're welcome to it.
- Steve, London'
Is there nothing more pathetic than a curmudgeon who whines about their situation then doees nothing to improve it?
Too pitiful to hate and too miserable to tolerate.
- James, London
Why anti-yank? What odds does it makes where any visitor comes from?
- Noelle Greenaway, Central London
Listen to the whinging and the moaning..... blah blah blah.... London is a city. Cities are generally busy, crowded places. It is summer and summer means tourism. All you people banging on about rude foreigners should just be grateful that those "rude" foreigners speaking their foreign languages are spending their english pounds in our shops. I was in Paris over the weekend, a city that I know very well and used to love. But I now think that London edges it... it was not cheap and full of fat, badly dressed Americans speaking English... oops sorry, American VERY LOUDLY. The Metro was crowded (but at least cheap). If you don't like/appreciate our lovely city then leave it... I love my unique city with all its flaws.
- Goggs, London
Spanish, French and Italian are the rudest tourists I have come across.
I avoid most of Central London during weekends as I just can't stand the amount of mindless idiots walking the streets speaking foreign languages.
I brough my mother to London a few months ago and she was shocked at how many europeans there were.
When I travelled to NY you don't seem or hear them. I much prefer New York in that respect. But, London does have it's history and charm and you can't beat that!
- Adam, London, UK
I thought I had become familiar enough with London to take the tube from the airport and catch a bus to my hotel from the station. At the Bus Stop, I was treated to a genuine brawl by a guy who was upset at another couple because they didn't make way on the footpath. The two guys actually punched their way into the convenience store behind the stop, knocking down bottles and boxes. Said guy was actually lamenting about how ungentlemanly London had become! Luckily it broke up without anyone getting hurt.
But it's my favorite city. The sights, museums and culture make it a must visit place at least twice a year.
- T. Varadaraj, Bangalore, India
I am English and lived for two years in London five years ago, for two years.I was employed and resided on the Belgrave Road along with many non Londers for work.Obviously the best way to know what is going on was the pub.Take it from me,meeting French,German,Spanish,Italian and many other foreign visitors,they were all in agree ment that London was too expensive and the hours of the pubs being open were pathetic.I was to;ld by many visitors i met that Londonb was their first and last visit.Who can blame them?O.k To show the nyounger generation, but mom nad dad probablly paid for that trip.
The catch frase of the French i met was In London everything is 5 pounds?that was years ago>Good luck you sad England From an X pat.
- Allan Clarke, Brasil
I came to London 22yrs ago from Ireland. Back then it was a clean safe city that you could walk the streets at night. People were friendly and full of good old cockney charm. Now, it is place I can't wait to get out off and never return to. The 'Old' London that I fell in love with as a child on visits, is now only in the movies.How sad!
- Doug, London
I am about to visit London for the second time in four months. The dollar is much better than it was last year when it cost $2.20 to buy one pound. It now about $1.70 to the pound. A huge difference.
I was able to able to get a great airfare on United so I decided a second trip to my favorite city was worth it. (I was here for a long weekend in April, and I leave for a week's vacation in London next week.) But you must also remember that Americans, on average, get only 13 days per year, and at least 34% do not use all of their annual leave. Many Americans are staying closer to home this year due to the economy.
- Marlene, Alexandria, VA
You can't even get a drink after 11.00 without being in a dangerous or extortionate place and even then you'd better be quick as the last train turns into a pumpkin at midnight.Forget night buses if you value you life too.
A lot of positive comments from 'Londoners' that avoid eye contact with each other at all costs for fear of confrontation.
Everyone happy?I think not.We're stifled and frustrated but maybe that's what Europeans like?
- Eddie, London
I USED to live in London (Paddigton area)but moved out in 2002. I also lived for a short time in Paris, and in Singapore and Tokyo, but London was the most expensive of them all.
Having visited the old place in 2008 I found the prices even higher, people serving in cafes and on other public services that could barely speak English, and I could not wait to get back on that train to Preston!
WhAT A SHAME; London used to be a charming city in the 60's 70's 80's and 90's but now seems to have gone to the dogs.
I never heard one cockney accent in the five days I was there on business. Where have they all emigrated to?
The best city in Britain for value and sight seeing in my opinion, is Glasgow believe it or not because the residents are polite and friendly and they don't rip tourists off with high prices.
- James Stirling, Preston UK
I agree Catherine. I am a Londoner but spend at least half the year travelling abroad. I do not take London for granted. I love living here, after all it is my city. However, I am now very used to the many, many positive comments I receive from my myriad of foreign visitors, regarding London and all it has to offer. My standard reply having heard some of their comments, is that although I agree, many Londoners would not. Many Londoners complain about this, that and everything else. My visitors however, are very impressed by so many things we take for granted. The top comments, presumably a great surprise to some, are the quality of life: open green spaces, green treelined streets and avenues, the lack of noise, the fresh air. Many of our suburbs and inner city residential areas offer the above but we take it for granted - until of course you spend time in a flat in Barcelona, Madrid, Athens and then you understand what they are all on about.
- Dep, London
They would like it,half of their families have probably moved here.It's a dirty city with no culture to speak of unless we go down that 'diverse' road again.Dangerous and smelly,which applies to most of the people too.
I'm a Londoner but I loathe what this city has become.A melting pot of despair.They're welcome to it.
- Steve, London
Yeah we get it, the Americans are not touring! So what?
- Frank, Home Counties, England.
And don't we know it,look at em.Bring back the Americans at least they are polite and are educated,now all we get is ill breed poor Europeans,London has become a second class holiday destination for poor Europeans that cant afford Vienna or Paris.
- Kev, London-UK
Perhaps its because they can get drunk and lay on the ground, In there country they would be banged up in the nick
- Richard Edmunds, Rayleigh Essex
Very interesting article. My sister is over from Australia and having a great time. Swine flu is even more widespread over in Oz so she is unconcerned about it being here. We Londoners sometimes take our city for granted but to the outside world it's a fantastic place where there are plenty of attractions that cost nothing if you know your way around.
- Catherine Scott, Kingston Upon Thames England
