What the Brexit Vote Means for the Global Tourism Industry
Skift Take
Suffice it to say, everyone surprised by the outcome of the Brexit vote probably wishes they’d paid more attention to it than they did. Nevertheless, we probably won’t feel the immediate impacts of the UK’s exit until at least two years from now.
Shock. That’s the best word that encapsulates not just how the global tourism industry feels, but the global community at large, given the news that British voters have essentially voted themselves out of the European Union (EU) after more than four decades of European membership.
“There was a lot of shock, to be honest,” said Stephen Dunk, European operations director and global sales coordinator for Travelzoo, who is based in London. "It was pretty close. I was not expecting it to go quite the way that it did.”
The vote was 17,410,742 (51.9%) of UK residents who voted to leave the EU, while 16,141,241 (48.1%) voted to remain. This decision, needless to say, won’t just impact travel or tourism, but a variety of industries, especially finance. And given the immediacy of what’s just happened, it’s still too early to say exactly what kind of impact this will have on the travel and tourism industry.
The UK’s eventual exit from the EU, dubbed “Brexit,” is a pro
