Ever since the Brexit referendum was held in 2016, negotiations have gone anything but smoothly with the deadline now having been extended to October 2019. Companies that reside within the travel and tourism industry need to actively prepare and reformulate their plans in preparation for Brexit. Due to the continual rejection of Theresa May’s deal and now her resignation from office, followed by a potential Conservative Leadership contest, the likelihood of a potential ‘No deal’ situation continues to come into play.

This comes at a time were international tourism is at an all time high, the rise of Low Cost Airlines Market is enabling middle and low income groups to travel more often, boosting the tourism industry’s total revenue. Not to mention that shifting preferences from traditional tourist activities to more unique ones have increased the popularity of niche trends such as Culinary Tourism.

Brexit’s Impact on Tourism

Brexit will impact people, politics, economics, and business as it is one of the most important and controversial

political stories of recent times.

There are five key areas which have been identified as challenges that must be overcome to mitigate the

impact of Brexit on the travel and tourism industry. They are:

Maintaining the free flow of the movement of people through aviation access

Managing border control and security

Monitoring employment opportunities alongside development projects

Reassessing areas that receive EU funding

Destination imagery currently aligned with the UK and Europe

With no clear picture yet emerging as to what Brexit will ultimately look like – ‘No Deal’; May’s Deal; Single Market; Customs Union; deals of the kind secured by Norway and Canada – the tourism industry tries to prepare for every outcome yet remains at a ‘standstill’.

It is debatable whether there will be any potential ‘winners’ from Brexit, possibly only ‘lesser losers’. Yet, evaluation definitively highlights certain factors that will drive the tourism industry to success, hence certain operators becoming potential ‘winners’ during this unpredictable time.

Tourism industries with a global footprint have the potential to cruise through Brexit. The United Kingdom dominates European countries’ international arrivals in 2018, and vice versa, both acting as the leading source markets for each destination. A total of 55.9 million Brits visited Europe whilst 24.7 million Europeans (68% of total arrivals) traveled to the UK. Due to general uncertainty and lack of clarity on current relations, travel between the UK and European destinations will experience a slowdown and unsteady growth.

For more details, please visit: Brexit’s impact on Tourism – Thematic Research

Low Cost Airlines Market – Key Insights

An increase in the size of the middle-class population in the Asia-Pacific and European regions is driving the global Low Cost Carriers (LCC) aviation market with a rise in demand for affordable domestic and international flight tickets. Highlighting this is the fact that eight of the top 10 global LCC markets are in the Asia-Pacific and European regions.

The widespread adoption of ticketless travel, along with increasing internet distribution and bandwidth, benefited the LCC segment, especially in developing nations. The expansion of internet connectivity has helped to reduce the dependency on complex and expensive ticketing systems used by legacy airlines to manage their pricing plans and decrease their reliance on travel agents to sell tickets. The emergence of the internet as the major medium for booking tickets in the last few years has increased the transparency in ticket pricing and helped the LCCs due to their lower ticket prices.

Millennial travelers are a lucrative segment because of their spending potential. Based on their experiences, a majority of millennials promote their brand preferences by sharing on social media or through peer reviews. However, they do not show such brand loyalty in case of LCC airlines. When asked whether they are loyal to one or more airlines, millennials are four times more likely to be disloyal than non-millennials.

For more details, please visit: Global Low Cost Airlines Market to 2022: Market overview and insights for low-cost airlines

Culinary Tourism Market Forecast

The travel and tourism market, attributed to a large number of individuals shifting their preferences from normal tourism activities to luxury tourism, including culinary tourism. The popular destinations such as the US, the UK, Germany, France, China, Australia, and Spain are witnessing an increasing number of travelers, both domestic and international, from across the world, thus contributing immensely to the growth of the global culinary tourism market. In addition, the developing countries, such as Sri Lanka, India, and Mexico, are also upgrading their tourism infrastructure, which is expected to further augment the market growth during the forecast period. It is predicted that the culinary tourism market will register a CAGR of over 9% by 2023.

Luxury tourism, including culinary tourism, is considered to be an elite part of any lifestyle due to the high cost associated with it. The elite nature of culinary tourism restricts the growth of the global culinary tourism market because many tourists, especially mass tourists, hesitate to spend too much on such trips. This, in turn, affects the global culinary tourism market growth during the forecast period. However, the growing number of local culinary programs introduced at music and arts festivals may help boost the popularity of culinary tourism in the future.

For more details, please visit: Global Culinary Tourism Market 2019-2023