wickesy
<font color=royalblue>Tomorrow, tomorrow, I love y
- Joined
- Apr 2, 2006
I've just seen this article in the Orlando Sentinel.
Strangely enough there's no mention of what effect the introduction of ESTA might have had on the drop in visitors. I think possibly more of us are flying indirect these days to save money so that might account for the drop in figures as well.
Any other thoughts?
The number of British visitors to Orlando fell in 2010 for a third consecutive year, a puzzling decline in travel from what was once Central Florida's biggest international market.
Experts offer various reasons for the continuing losses, though it's difficult to say for sure why it's happening.
Last year was considered ideal for British visitors in some respects, thanks mostly to the opening of Universal Orlando's Wizarding World of Harry Potter attraction.
Yet last year British travel to Central Florida was down nearly 15 percent, to about 710,000, according to the latest estimate from Visit Orlando, the local visitors bureau.
One possible explanation for what's going on with British travelers in Orlando involves understanding how they get here.
Many arrive in the area on charter flights, having bought discount vacation packages that offer theme-park fun in Orlando and often some sun, sand and surf at nearby beaches. But in 2008-09, two of those key charter operators XL Leisure Group and Globespan Group went belly-up and stopped flying into Orlando Sanford International Airport. Meanwhile, some of the airlines with scheduled flights into Orlando International Airport from the U.K. switched to smaller planes, further reducing capacity.
That shrinkage which amounted to about 9 percent last year might have forced some British tourists to fly into other Florida airports, said Danielle Courtenay, chief marketing officer for Visit Orlando.
"The first arrival [airport] tends to be the city that they're counted at," Courtenay said. "That could be one of the reasons why there's a little bit of a dip" in Orlando's count.
Another possible reason for the 15 percent drop last year and the 13.4 percent decrease the year before that: Britain in the past two years has sharply increased its "air-passenger duty" a tax that airline passengers pay when flying from the U.K. to someplace else. The tax is zoned geographically, so now it costs much more to fly to the U.S. than to some European destinations though not quite as much as it costs to fly to places such as the Caribbean.
Strangely enough there's no mention of what effect the introduction of ESTA might have had on the drop in visitors. I think possibly more of us are flying indirect these days to save money so that might account for the drop in figures as well.
Any other thoughts?