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Sadiq Khan proposes £10m tourism boost for London on-trade

This campaign will encourage international tourists to return with confidence to London now that travel restrictions are easing around the world.

UKHospitality has welcomed the mayor's announcement today that a further £10m will be invested in attracting tourists back to the capital.

Kate Nicholls, UKHospitality CEO said the support was exactly what the hospitality and tourism sector needs right now in the wake of Covid-19.

Before the pandemic, London was the third most visited city on the planet, driven largely by the city’s world-leading cultural and visitor attractions. However, due to the pandemic in 2021, the number of overnight stays made by tourists to the capital more than halved to 60.8 million with a spend of £3.8 billion, compared to 147.4 million overnight visits and spending of £18.8 billion in 2019.

The mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, said: “London’s amazing hospitality, retail, and cultural sectors have faced an existential threat from the impacts of the Covid-19 – but now that restrictions for travellers coming to the UK have been eased, London is fully open once more and ready to retake its place as one of the most visited cities in the world. There is no doubt that the return of international tourism will be central to London’s economic recovery.”

Nicholls added: “Businesses in our sector remain in a fragile state, carrying crippling debt and facing a barrage of rising costs across the board. Initiatives that help drive footfall such as this will be vital to our recovery. However, remaining an attractive destination for both international and domestic visitors will become more difficult if the planned VAT rise in April goes ahead and so we are urging the government to commit to keeping it at its current 12.5% level permanently.”

• On-Trade
• London
• covid 19
• tourists
• sadiq khan