Given the current state of the global economy and reports that people are not travelling and staying at home, you would consider that much of the travel industry are struggling to get business. UK Inbound has report that the number of tourist arrivals fell 3.8% in May 2008 compared with the same period last year. More alarming was the even larger and highly significant fall in forward bookings, down 9.5%. Overall, they estimate that the UK could see 500,000 less American Visitors to the UK this year. However, it is not all doom and gloom because there are still many people travelling and bookings being made. For example London Sightseeing Tours has seen bookings continue coming in although there has been a noticeable difference in what was expected.

One big shift is that the % of single traveller bookings has risen against those that travel as part of a group. One of the assumptions of this is that people are making more out of short Business Trips to London than previously perhaps due to the fact that they may not be taking more breaks throughout the year so feel they need to make the most of the opportunity while they can. The other item London Sightseeing Tours reported was that despite other areas of the Travel Industry saying Americans are putting off travel, still over 50% of their bookings remain as American citizens.

Looking at how “London Tours” has been searched within Google over the last 4 years you can see that there has been a downward switch, however in the first half of 2008 the figure is at least remaining constant if not a slight curve upwards. So there is cause for optimism in this market and also in the overall UK Tourism Market we believe.

Data taken from Google Trends for term “London Tours”.

So what do we see for London Sightseeing Tours in the future? Well, we believe that the market is full of opportunities and that if Americans for example do start staying at home then there are plenty of people in the UK who will still want a break away and come to London and experience the Capital and all it has to offer.