The impact of the Brexit measure to ban European arrivals from using identity cards as “catastrophic”, a leading travel industry figure described.
The latest data from VisitBritain showed 5.87 million visitors arrived from overseas in the first four months of 2022 – barely half of the 11.53 million arrivals in 2019.
Joss Croft, chief executive of UKinbound, said: “This data reminds us of the devastating impact the pandemic had on the UK’s inbound tourism industry but also alludes to why our members are only expecting business to return to 50 per cent of pre-pandemic levels in the second half of this year.
“An additional hurdle our members are facing this year is the implications of Brexit, such as the removal of ID cards, which has had a catastrophic impact on the international student travel industry.
“EU school groups are opting to travel to alternative English-speaking destinations such as Ireland, where they can still use their ID cards for entry, instead of the UK, at a cost of millions of pounds to regional economies across the UK who would normally host these students.”
Around 300 million EU citizens who have ID cards but not passports have been excluded from the UK, since October 2021.
