Visit USA chair Jonathan Sloan expects British visitors to stay longer and spend more
The US will shortly be open for business once again, and with a recently confirmed reopening date of November 8 for international visitors, we know – after many false starts and postponed travel plans – that fully-vaccinated British travellers will finally be able to return.
While long overdue, and a weight lifted off a UK travel sector that relies on lucrative transatlantic leisure traffic, things won’t be exactly the same, and the US travel industry will need to continue to adapt to maximise on returning British travellers.
There has been huge pent-up demand for travel to the US over the past 20 months. The UK, before the pandemic, was the largest overseas tourism market to the US and, according to the World Travel & Tourism Council, represents 8% of all inbound travel to the US.
The UK has consistently sent around four million visitors a year to the US over the past decade, peaking at 4.9 million in 2015. While air travel is not expected to return to pre-pandemic levels until at least 2023, UK flight levels are predicted to be back to 70% by next summer. Based on this forecast, predictions put the potential of travel by UK visitors to the US for 2022 at around three million, hopefully defending the title as the largest overseas market.
Pattern shift
In the past, Brits have been fairly predictable when it comes to booking travel to the US, with lead times of four to six months, mainly in the peak booking periods of January through March, with an average trip duration of around 12 days.
The opening of late-summer intra-European travel meant many British travellers abandoned the traditional booking pattern, often taking last-minute trips based on changes in restrictions and the government’s traffic light system.
Travelport’s UK-US booking window before the recent announcement sat at around 110 days. Expect this to shorten dramatically, as demand pushes bookings into the last two months of 2021 and Q1 2022.
Expect US city breaks, shopping trips, ski-resort visits, winter sun seeking and a desire to visit friends and family to push the last-minute booking market for the remainder of 2021 and into early 2022.
Travelport’s GDS data before the announcement already showed British travellers booking US trips lengthening their average stay from 13 to 15 days.
Desire to spend
British households saved £192 billion in 2020, according to the Bank of England, and £50 billion is earmarked to be spent over the next 12 months. It is no surprise that findings by the Centre for Economics and Business Research show Brits plan to spend lockdown savings on overseas travel, with 34% of those polled putting it as their top priority.
Although total arrival numbers to the US from the UK will be down for 2022, watch out for the longer-staying and big-spending British visitor.
The special UK-US travel relationship, coupled with the green light to resume, is an opportunity for the travel trade to engage clients in the diverse opportunities across the US.
The pandemic has seen a resurgence and reliance on the travel trade by the British public, so in-market events through organisations such as Visit USA (UK) will prove invaluable in updating destination knowledge and confidence.
That’s why Visit USA has continued to hold virtual roadshows in 2021 – our most recent broadcast, in collaboration with Travel Weekly and Aspire, was entitled Visit USA All Year Round, viewable here.
Fourteen Visit USA members highlighted what makes the multitude of destinations, experiences and attractions so special. More events are planned for 2022 and the Visit USA Digital Travel Planner is available to download from visitusa.org.uk, where agents can find the latest news, ideas and offers from more than 100 Visit USA members.
The US is open for business again and Visit USA (UK) can’t wait to help you make the most of the extraordinary destination that is the United States of America.