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Updated March 31st, 2021 at 13:37 IST

London tourism braces for slow virus recovery

The cobblestones are deserted at the Tower of London. A biting wind blows and there is no sign of life - even the Tower's storied ravens are nowhere to be seen.

Image Credits: AP
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The cobblestones are deserted at the Tower of London. A biting wind blows and there is no sign of life - even the Tower's storied ravens are nowhere to be seen. England's top paid-for attraction, which normally draws more than three million visitors a year, has been shuttered for all but a dozen weeks since the pandemic began and international tourism to London came to an almost complete standstill.

The quietness has been surreal for Amanda Clark, one of the Tower's famous resident guards known as Yeoman Warders, or Beefeaters. The affable Clark, a retired sergeant major, lives for interacting with people: directing tourists, telling them stories, taking their selfies.

Before March 2020, she would have been doing that happily everyday as endless crowds streamed into the fortress. "It's really quite extraordinary, how something so big and popular is just so quiet and empty," said Clark. "Don't forget, we are classed as a prison. And these past few months have felt quite claustrophobic because there's just been nobody here."

After enduring three national lockdowns, attractions and hospitality businesses in London are making tentative plans to reopen from mid-May - the earliest Britain's government says international travel can resume. But deep uncertainty about the risk of COVID-19 remains.

With quarantine requirements and travel restrictions still in place everywhere and Europe battling a third wave of the pandemic, many in the capital are bracing for another bleak year. Even national treasures like the Tower of London have struggled. Historic Royal Palaces, a charity that runs the Tower and other historic attractions, has said it expected a 100 million-pound shortfall because of COVID-19.

Many expect the path to recovery to be slow particularly because London is a city that's always been hugely reliant on international tourism. Over half of all consumer spending in the West End - home to the city center's bustling shops, restaurants, bars and theatres - typically comes from European and other overseas visitors.

In normal times, short-haul markets like European countries would generally be expected to recover faster than long-haul ones like the U.S. and Asia. But with the threat of new coronavirus variants in Europe and the slow vaccine rollout on the continent, experts say tourists are highly unlikely to start coming back in earnest until the fall.

"We can see that other countries, particularly our European neighbours who tend to be the biggest markets for us, we can see them going into third waves of COVID," said Patricia Yates, director of strategy and communications at VisitBritain.

Nationally, officials are forecasting inbound tourism to generate just over 6 billion pounds this year, compared to more than 28 billion pounds in 2019. London's Heathrow Airport has said it does not expect passenger flows to return to 2019 levels until around 2024. Stuart Procter, who manages the luxury Stafford Hotel near central London's St. James's Palace, would usually spend time on marketing trips to America, his core market. This year he hasn't bothered.

For many, planning a holiday to London right now is impossible because there's no certainty that big ticket events like the Wimbledon Championships in July can go ahead normally, he said. "We've missed our cream, we missed our summer. I don't think we'll see any green shoots until the fourth quarter if I'm honest," Procter said.

In the longer term, industry experts are confident leisure travel will bounce back and tourists will eventually return to London. The big unknown, however, is whether business travel will ever be the same again. "If we can get up to 30 per cent in July, I think that will be terrific…  September, October, November, December yeah, we'd like to see but those are corporate months generally… Will the guys and girls be coming on the aeroplanes to do business? I'm not quite sure," Procter said.

Some attractions, including the Tower of London, are planning to switch their attention to courting domestic visitors for now to recuperate some losses. "Up to 70 per cent of our income comes from those international tourists, so this summer we're definitely rolling out the carpet for our domestic tourists," Clark said. That may be easier said than done.

When restrictions eased last summer, many Britons flocked to coastal and rural destinations for breaks. Surveys have showed many remain highly wary of visiting a big city and using buses and trains. London has always been proud of its public transport network and how few people drive into the city, but that key strength has become its weakness in the pandemic.

Some Londoners out walking on a recent weekend say that while they've enjoyed having the city to themselves, they're also keen to see London open to visitors again soon. "One of the things that makes London interesting is the fact it's a melting pot, the variety of people that you can bump into and hear just walking through the city," said Ashleigh Muchatuta. "The things that attract people to the city are still going to be here and will outlast the pandemic, hopefully." 

Image Credits: AP

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Published March 31st, 2021 at 13:37 IST

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