Staycation or Vacation? How UK Tourism Levels Might Affect Your Attraction This Summer

Joseph Paul, a Key Account Manager here at Vennersys, has looked at how the UK’s tourism market might shape up for the rest of this year. With both domestic and international tourism expected to be popular, Joe utilises his expertise in maintaining client relationships to look at how our VenposCloud system could help you cope with the increased visitor demand.

Read on for his insights!

The pandemic caused an increase in domestic tourism

The Covid-19 pandemic grounded flights around the world and prevented most forms of international travel for almost 2 years, so it’s no surprise that domestic tourism increased in popularity as a result.

However, few people predicted so called “staycations” to maintain their popularity once stringent international travel restrictions began to ease, and yet that seems to be what’s happened. Plus, with the recent domestic airport chaos leaving thousands of Brits stranded throughout the continent, many people are still hesitant to head international for their summertime escape.

If both domestic and inbound international tourism are expected to be popular this summer, do you have the appropriate ticketing software and measures in place to cope with it?

Staycations aren’t losing their popularity despite other options reopening

According to the Independent, outbound international flights taken by UK tourists were down 94% in the heart of the pandemic when compared to the first quarter of 2020. Annual UK cruise passengers also fell from 2 million in 2019 to just 259,000 in 2020.

With international travel proving so difficult for so long, many sought alternative options within the borders of the UK. Travellers found themselves exploring more local areas of natural beauty, like Snowdonia or the Peak district, and taking a city break to Central London, Manchester, or Edinburgh.

In the 2021 Staycation Market Report by Parkdean Resorts, 53% of holidaymakers claimed they were planning a Staycation in 2022. Further research by Opinion Matters on behalf of Hoseasons also claims that 83% of those that had a Staycation in 2021 planned to do so again this year.

Some of the most popular domestic hotspots from 2021 include all 300 miles of the sunny south coast, the New Forest, north Wales, and more.

But it isn’t only domestic tourists that will be visiting your attraction this year. The recent chaos at the UK’s international airports has not been replicated across much of Europe, meaning that inbound tourism is likely to ramp up much faster than outbound tourism.

In fact, VisitBritain predicts the number of inbound tourists throughout 2022 to reach around 21.1 million: fewer than the highs of 2019, but still almost triple that of 2021.

As we enter summer with the school holidays within touching distance, your visitor attraction needs to be prepared for a potential influx of visitors from all over the country, and indeed the world.

Your visitor attraction booking software needs to handle the demand

With the potential for so many visitors over a short period of time, the software you use across your attraction needs to be able to handle the increased demand. From managing your visitor influx to your point-of-sale and table ordering system, everything needs to be able to cope under the pressure.

If your system is rendered inoperable for any reason, your profit margins could suffer. For example, just a few hours without the ability to sell food or merchandise from your gift shops could lower your income by hundreds, if not thousands of pounds for that day.

A system malfunction might also increase your employee’s admin time as they try to bring that system back up to speed.

Plus, with an expected increase in international customers, it’s crucial that your systems are simple and easy to use for those who may not have a thorough understanding of the English language.

If your ticketing system is slow to operate and complex to navigate, queues throughout your attraction may be longer than necessary. This may reduce your customers’ satisfaction and impact your customer retention, which may be reflected in your reviews too.

Our integrated ticketing software helps provide a seamless visitor experience

To help elevate the efficiency of every system across your visitor attraction, consider making use of our integrated ticketing systems. UK attractions can benefit from the capabilities and functionality of our VenposCloud system, which is designed to morph around the specific needs of your business.

Our integrated modules can be implemented individually or as a package, which means you can improve efficiency park-wide or focus on your speciality. We offer services for everything from event and facilities management to animal adoptions and automatic Gift Aid claiming.

Our systems are designed to help your business grow, and are proven to help increase visitor spend, reduce wait times, and help increase brand exposure through our partnerships. In fact, official statistics from VisitEngland reveal that Blenheim Palace, a client of ours, was the 14^th most-visited paid English attraction in 2020, despite the adversity of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Get in touch

To find out the full list of benefits our systems could have on your business, or to book a more detailed chat with one of our knowledgeable team, email contact@vennersys.co.uk or call us on 01908 735274.

About the author

Joe has 6 years of experience in Account Management within the SaaS industry. Since joining Vennersys, he has worked closely with our clients to boost customer satisfaction and to be their main point of contact within the business. His focus is on the success of our clients, and he works closely with several visitor attractions to ensure they are getting everything they need to achieve their potential.