US Interest In UK Travel Rises After Brexit

June 27, 2016

Several online travel sites have seen a jump in queries from Americans about travel to the United Kingdom since it voted to leave the European Union, a sign the resulting drop in the value of the pound may spur US visits to Britain.

One site found that more Britons were also asking about flights to the United States.

Travel agents, hotel chains and airlines say it is too early to tell if the vote has impacted bookings, but some US travel agents are advising people to book UK trips now and expect to see a bump in bookings over time.

On June 24, the day after Britain voted to leave the European Union, Kayak said it saw a 54 percent increase in US searches exploring fares to the United Kingdom compared to other Fridays in the month of June.

Flight searches from the UK for US travel also rose 46 percent, according to Kayak.

"Americans may want to secure a great fare, while British may be worried that higher fares will soon hit the market," said Billy Sanez, vice president of marketing and communications at FareCompare when shown the Kayak data.

Search site Travelzoo saw a 35.3 percent increase in travel searches from the US to the UK from June 24 to June 27, and StudentUniverse saw searches for flights from the US to the UK double from a year ago. It did not show a change in UK-based searches for US trips.

A number of US travel agents said they expected demand for British travel to emerge, but few had seen it yet.

(Reuters)