Banks and bankers have come in for a lot of criticism in recent years, so it is perhaps right and proper that we should give them credit – even if they don’t give it to us! – when it is due.
Barclays’ hospitality and leisure division has been gazing into its corporate crystal ball and produced a report that forecasts a big upswing in domestic tourism. It is a comprehensive and exhaustive piece of research, all the more welcome because it is so positive.
Back in 2008/2009, when the recession took hold, Britain’s holidaymakers were so strapped for cash that many of them cancelled their overseas trips and stayed in the UK instead. The “staycation” was born.
Even though the nation’s finances now seem to be on a more stable footing, and consumer confidence is on the rise, Barclays reckons that many of those staycationers had such a good time “at home”, that they are planning to repeat the experience.
Domestic tourism spending, the bank predicts, will increase by 25 per cent – to £108 billion – by 2017. Southwest England, which last year raked in £10.5 billion from homegrown visitors, should net as much as £13.2 billion in three years’ time.
An extra £2.7 billion a year cannot be anything but very welcome indeed!