Tourism in the UK - an Industry Riding on the Exchange Rate

This article analyses trends;s in real expenditure on travel in the UK since 1972. It examines the relationship between expenditure and employment and outlines some of the issues which are involved in attracting travellers to the more peripheral parts of Great Britain. In spite of the recent upsurge in real spending by domestic visitors the general trend since 1972 has been more or less constant. By contrast, there has been a definite upward trend in real expenditure by overseas visitors, although there have been marked fluctuations around this trend. Throughout the period, there was a close inverse relationship between variations in real spending by foreigners and sterling's effective exchange rate.