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Credit crunch blamed for fall in visitors to London
Ed Harris, Evening Standard04.08.08
A downturn in visitors in the second half of last year meant four per cent fewer tourists visited the capital, figures from Visit London show.
Although foreign visitor numbers actually rose six per cent in the first six months of last year, the total numbers were down seven per cent from July to December.
It all added up to a total last year of 25.45 million visitors - those who stayed for at least one night, including Britons. This was a four per cent dip on the 2006 total.
Visit London said that while European visitor numbers had risen last year, North American visits had remained flat. Weak consumer confidence and the credit crunch had both affected numbers. The amount spent by visitors to London did rise, however, going up 3.4 per cent to £10.4 billion compared with 2006.
Visit London chief executive James Bidwell said: "With uncertain economic times ahead, London's tourism industry could be facing its toughest conditions for some years.
However, with strong visitor growth since 2005, London faces any economic slowdown from a position of strength. We should continue to invest in our city and Visit London is well placed to deliver on behalf of London."
Reader views (1)
Really?
And nothing to do with a decade of crazy social engineering by McLabour's perverse creation of 7/7 'Londonistan' and the saturation of indigenous London by British diluting, socially rotting, economically corrupting, minimal English speaking, mass multicultural immigration; in toxic combination with knife wielding feral adolescents freely aloud to roam lawless streets, often in broad daylight.
Quite honestly, I think visitors would be better off visiting the Fringe Festival in Edinburgh, where the craziness is conjured up only annually to be harmlessly entertaining, and only lasts for a few weeks, and where more than 50% of it's inhabitants attempt to speak English.
- Dave Harrison, cumbria
