Skift Take
“Just once is enough,” seems to be the thoughts of British tourists who are dipping their toes in USA tourism and then turning around to explore their more exotic neighbors to the east.
UK visitor numbers to the USA are down 16% from 2008 to 2011, with delegates at the Visit USA Association briefing on Tuesday hearing that more needs to be done to stimulate tourism to the States. Julie Heizer, acting director of the Office of Travel & Tourism Industries (OTTI), said that there was a 28% drop in UK visitor spending in the US from 2008 compared with 2011, with $12bn spent last year, although it was up from $11.3bn in 2010.
“We need to do more,” said Heizer, adding that the travel trade needs to show consumers that just because they have visited the USA once before, that doesn’t mean they have seen all it has to offer.
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Tags: advertising, tourism, Travel Trends, uk, usa
Photo credit: Tourists gather near the tkts booth in Times Square to get discounted Broadway tickets. Stacey Huggins / Flickr.com