The UK has suffered a fall in both overseas visitors and forward bookings for the fourth consecutive month. Statistics for January from industry body UKinbound show a drop of almost 4% in arrivals over the same month last year. Forward bookings were down by 2.8%, an improvement on the 4.8% drop in December.

But UKinbound warned of a “significant drop” in demand from higher spending long haul countries, with only “modest increases” in short haul business.

And with the dollar remaining weak and the US economy either in or near recession no improvement is expected from the country during 2008 and maybe beyond, the trade organisation cautioned.

“With consumer confidence in most long haul markets remaining fragile, only Europe, with an appreciating euro, provides any prospect of growth this year,” UKinbound said in its Business Barometer for January.

“However, as long as the current global economic instability persists, business and consumer confidence will continue to decline in all markets in the short to medium term resulting in lower demand for tourism products.

“In such conditions price is king and in this regard the UK has an uphill struggle,” UKinbound added, citing the World Economic Forum’s travel and tourism competitiveness report for 2008 which places the UK 127 out of 130 countries for price competitiveness.

“We do exceptionally well in many other areas, such as cultural and human resources, giving us a good overall result, but high prices, driven by high operating costs and ever increasing taxes, remains our Achilles Heel.”

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