Гэвин Лэндри:
So of our 40 million inbound annually Europe generally represents 70% of the inbound traffic into the UK. And so, uh, we are very much hopeful that our European partners and friends and consumers, um, are able to travel as soon as they can safely. And certainly in the meantime, you know, you have those green shoots that we’re going to try to take advantage of when it comes to countries that appear to have had success in the management of the pandemic, as well as, you know, this certification, which, you know, if there’s one hope I have is that there would be one global certification, one global standard. And I know the WTTC and the UN WTO are working on these things. It takes time, of course, but that would be the, you know, a very big, positive step forward so that, you know, travelers don’t have to kind of look on a country by country basis.
Гэвин Лэндри:
We’re, we’re wondering what’s going to happen now with multi-leg trips. Some are saying that, you know, if the UK is open, um, where we would have folks take a UK trip and then maybe go onto Europe, other parts of Europe that, that might not happen, this, this, this go around that in the future, uh, at least in the near term that it might be more of an in country, uh, so that we could encourage more, you know, Scotland, Wales, England type trips, and have more success with that. So again, we’re looking at it from a lot of different vantage points, um, but we are paying close attention. I will, I will tell you that
Доктор Питер Тарлоу:
The world health organization today came out against any form of green passport. Oh, did they? Okay. Yes. So that’s kind of an interesting thing because the tourism industry, I think very much support what you’re saying and, you know, so I was a little surprised when I read that the world health organization said there must be reasons, obviously it was in the last few hours. Um, so once again, we have a bifurcation here, one, one side saying one thing and one side saying something else. Yeah.
Юрген Штайнметц:
And then of course there’s a big discussion about discipline discrimination against travelers that are not vaccinated or cannot get vaccinated to keep the word suppose it’s an argument. It’s maybe a non argument. I can tell you out of my own experience, I’m getting ready actually to go to Cancun. There’s two WTTC summit. And by the way, you took the news would be live streaming from this summit. So on the same channel you are now, you will be able to follow the summit and you can go to our website, word, tourism events.com, and you can see the program already. So we’re really looking forward to see what steps would be taking, how the international industry, the private industry is coming together and coming up with hopefully solutions that would benefit the rest of the world. And they have so many challenges when we go back to Britain. What did on everyone’s mind, of course, it’s mass transportation. And in the UK, the two, the two it’s, one of the icons of transportation where they be operating as they have been operating in the past, or would they be operating different, or how do you handled social distancing under two? Right.
Гэвин Лэндри:
Well, I mean, I think it’s very similar to what’s happening in New York, um, where, you know, there are protocols in place, but yes, the tube, and in fact, the tube has been running, um, you know, throughout the pandemic for, uh, the, the, uh, folks that are essential workers and so on and so forth. I will tell you one thing, I mean, just in terms of what we were just discussing before we get back, cause I I’d have to probably refer you on to, you know, guidelines on the uk.gov site for specifically what’s happening with the tube right now. But the easy answer is yes, the tube is running. The tube will be running and, you know, those restrictions will be in place for as long as they need to be to protect public self, uh, public health and safety. But, um, one thing that’s really interesting is that I heard, um, on a talk the other day that it’s thought that the tourism industry specifically has moved forward anywhere from 10 to 20 years in terms of technological advances that have occurred because of the pandemic.
Гэвин Лэндри:
So when you think of biometric advances through the airports, um, touchless advances at retail at attractions, so on and so forth, um, it set aside what’s happened to our global workforce in terms of how we’ve know we’ve gotten so much better at working, you know, virtually as visit Britain and really doing what we do as best we can in a virtual environment, you know, looking at the way that it might affect business meetings and events down the line where there will likely be hybrid events, um, that will have an in real life versus an in real time component. So there’ll be a lot of folks who are watching things in real time versus being there in real life. And that’s fine. It’s just a new model. Um, and, and models like what was done in Singapore, which I have to give a lot of credit to, you know, we’re Singapore recently had a business meeting and I think they had, uh, it was either a thousand or 10.
Гэвин Лэндри:
It was a thousand person business meeting, but each group was 60 people. They put them into pods of 60 people and never the Twain did meet along the way. So you were able to manage that thousand person convention in a very different way and still achieve having a meeting where everyone got the, the content and the information, the opportunity to network, to some extent and, and still manage it in a very meaningful way. So, you know, we’ll be doing a lot of that, you know, along, along the way with the UK. And it’s really important for us to, you know, just join together as an industry because, you know, as we, as we’ve said, it is bifurcated that makes it more difficult. I hadn’t heard what you had to say there, Peter, that’s fine. I’m sure there are good reasons. And I, I agree you’re going there. It’s a, it’s a complicated matter. It’s not a one, one size fits all.
Юрген Штайнметц:
No, it’s the go to a different subject. Or in addition to the subject, there was a lot of talk about the UK leaving the European union and about a lot of changes. I attended an event with our good friend, John drinkings from the European tour operators association. And, uh, this was before the w the word travel market, the last one operating in 2019, I believe when there was really a fear of the UK leaving the EU. Now this audit all happened. What are the changes? Um, how, how can people travel between Europe and the UK and normally times just putting COVID to site? Um, w what is the development on that front?
Гэвин Лэндри:
Yeah, I mean, look, I am not, um, you know, particularly, uh, able to speak as an expert on every certain inbound market, because there are different requirements. Um, what I will tell you, the good news is that from the United States and Canada traveled to the UK remains the same. So these are requirements. Other documents required by 90 year travelers have not changed. Um, so that is very positive. There’s also just a recognition, how important the really us UK hub is as it comes to a transit, uh, transatlantic travel and opening up the rest of Europe. So the non-stop flights, dozens of us and Canadian cities are really important. And I mean, on a bright note, and just thinking about that, um, we look at capacity all the time, and we’re very happy to tell you that air Lingus is now planning three new direct routes, connecting Manchester with New York, Boston, and Orlando United has announced a new direct route between London and Boston and jet blue is planning to launch its first transatlantic routes this summer, connecting London with Boston and New York. So while COVID has progression the COVID progression and the vaccination programs are all, uh, going on, the regulations remain to be seen. Brexit will not have a significant impact on travel from the user, the us or Canada. And we are hopeful that improved conductivity will actually make it even easier for Americans and Canadians to visit Britain very soon.
Юрген Штайнметц:
One of the improvements, and this also happened before COVID for American visitors, is that you can actually avoid long passport lines. You can use the machines like the Europeans were able to do this for years now, Americans don’t have to get in, in these long lines and be questions about why they’re coming to Britain. So this must be a tremendous improvement for American travelers specifically on Canadian travelers.
Гэвин Лэндри:
Yes, absolutely. Those those improvements and those, um, you know, decisions, commitments. We have some very good friends in, in our, in our U S UK. Um, is there kind of passport programs here throughout scattered throughout North America, and they’re really good at their jobs, and they’ve done a great job of making sure that the lines kind of the passports were working really well. The average wait for an American through Heathrow was roughly five minutes. Um, so imagine that, I mean, I remember 20 years ago, you could, you could possibly wait two, three hours. And if it’s a nighttime flight that, that becomes a very long and arduous situation, five minute waiting time, um, the, the Cobain, uh, the COVID restrictions and guidelines are all meant to restore the ease of travel. It’s all meant to make sure that it can be done in a manner that is as consumer friendly as possible while still protecting the public health. And I think that’s where we’re, that’s where we’re headed
Юрген Штайнметц:
Now, before we go to questions and I see a number of questions already on the chat room, just everyone who asks questions, um, you, of course, you can put your, um, your question into the chat room, but it’d be easier to actually, if you ask them in person, you just raise your hand and we give you the microphone and hopefully the camera and, uh, you can actually interact, um, but either way, but to, before we get there, tell us what what’s going to be new besides COVID are there new hotel openings? What is new in the city? What should people expect that can travel to the UK and what should they be looking forward to?
Гэвин Лэндри:
Absolutely. Well, thank you for asking that. I, it gets me to do a little shameless promotion. I love to do that. So, um, you know, a fun fact about Britain, wherever you go, you’re never more than 70 miles from the coast. Imagine that wherever you go, you never more than 70 miles from the coast. So that makes it really easy to discover the beaches, the iconic cliffs, the charming seaside, and look for these things in every corner of Britain. Now you’ll notice that that Scotland is celebrating its years of year of coasts and waters, and that promotes the activities and natural beauty around its locks and coastlines Wales is also putting landscape in the spotlight and celebrating its castles and adventure products through its year about doors. And in England, the England coastal path will open in full this year, making it the largest and the longest, I should say, a walking path in the world, inviting visitors to discover beaches, cliff seaside resorts, along the entire coast of England.
Гэвин Лэндри:
Now a couple of big attractions. We are so excited about the art world or cultural society, the RHS, his newest garden. This is called the garden Bridgewater. This is the largest gardening project in Europe set to open on May 18th. It’s just outside of Manchester and its features eight 154 acre garden. Think of that 154 acre garden for visitors to enjoy all year round. What a great attraction we’ve got some, some great, um, screen tourism that is going to happen this year as a result of some wonderful films. We know that almost a third of all potential visitors say that they want to visit places at are seen on screen. And so people have been watching Bridgeton. That’s been a, been a rage. And so that’s getting a lot of attention. We’re building itineraries around Britain, the whole Harry Potter series, of course, catching up on the crown.
Гэвин Лэндри:
And of course you’ll not have missed it. Downton Abbey two is coming out and we’ll be out in December. So we’re all looking forward to that. Of course, Britain has, has gotten a lot of attention and so filming locations and so on and so forth, um, where people are getting this Bridget attendee experience has been, uh, has been, uh, coming into demand. And then of course, bond, you know, we got bond, don’t forget no time to die. It was meant to be out I think, a year and a half ago. Um, and it was delayed. The opening was delayed, but no time to die is coming this theater. So James Bond is, is going to be out. And he, uh, th the James Bond series always does a lot for us when it comes to, you know, uh, encouraging and inspiring tourism. Now on the, on the new things that are happening, we have a couple of big new hotels.
Гэвин Лэндри:
Um, and I’ll, I’ll speak to one in particular, which is really, I mean, there’s, I mean, there’s gotta be dozens across the whole of the nations and regions, but one of the ones that we’re really excited about is called the Londoner from Edwardian. Uh, this is coming this spring to Leicester square, and it’s in the heart of London’s theater district. This is the world’s first super boutique hotel. So that’s a five-star boutique hotel experience operating on an amazing scale. It has multiple restaurants, events, spaces. Um, it has a, an underground spa and a two screen Odeon cinema, and the property has 350 rooms and 35 suites all while still offering a character that is unmatched. Now, interestingly, that Odeon theater, that was the site of an audience theater. So what was done is there was a broker brokerage process gone that said, we’ll let you build this wonderful hotel, but you have to have equity and theater.
Гэвин Лэндри:
So that was not lost in the process of this particular development. And then of course, you know, in terms of the cities, um, we’re really excited about, you know, their capacity returns in the Manchester. Manchester is just a fantastic city. If you haven’t been there so rich with cultural offerings, uh, somehow Oasis the band is, is having a reawakening with the turn to vital now. So everybody wants to go and see where our Oasis and the gateway, the North, uh, Liverpool course is not far from, from London, about two hours North of London. You can go to see the premier league there. And of course the fab five, the Beatles, the Beatles experience, as well as, um, strawberry field, which is a new attraction that just opened there. And then lastly, when you start thinking about day trips, you think about the fact that he really, within two hours travel time, you could be almost in every part of Britain.
