Swiss steer clear of Britain over foot-and-mouth fears

The number of Swiss tourists visiting Britain is expected to drop by about 30 per cent this year swissinfo.ch

The number of Swiss tourists visiting Britain is expected to decline dramatically this year because of concerns about the crisis over foot-and-mouth disease. The British Tourist Authority in Switzerland predicts that numbers will fall by about 30 per cent.

The manager of the British Tourist Authority, Colin Joy, told swissinfo that Britain stood to lose as much as SFr250 million ($146 million) in revenue from Swiss tourists as a result of the crisis.

He said the figures were based on data from the major Swiss tourist operators, which have reported a marked decline in the take-up rate of holidays to England, Scotland and Wales. He added that activity holidays had been hard hit, but that the Swiss were staying away from London as well.

“We’ve been speaking to some of the major Swiss tour operators sending tourists to Britain and [the crisis] seems to be affecting all of them.

“The effect is quite dramatic because, at this stage of the year, they have already printed their catalogues and they cannot suddenly start selling another destination. All they can do is hope that visitor numbers pick up later in the year.”

Joy blamed television footage of animals being burned for creating a negative perception of Britain in the eyes of many tourists.

“A lot of the reasons why the Swiss are not going to Britain are slightly misguided. Some of the pictures on TV are quite dramatic [but] they are isolated. The disease has affected only one per cent of the animal stock in the UK.”

Large areas of the country were declared no-go areas at the height of the crisis, but Joy told swissinfo that many of Britain’s tourist attractions had now re-opened for the summer, including 600 properties belonging to the National Heritage and National Trust organisations.

He added that tourists should have no problems, provided they stayed away from farms.

Some 616,000 Swiss tourists visited Britain in 1999 – the latest year for which figures are available.

The British Tourist Authority estimates that the country stands to lose up to £2 billion (SFr5 billion) in overall tourism revenues as a result of the foot-and-mouth epidemic.

swissinfo