UK visitor economy needs government support, not more barriers

Walk through the center of most towns in England on a slow weekday afternoon and the story tells itself. The empty shopfront. The pub that didn’t reopen after the pandemic. The independent restaurant that could no longer afford staff. Return on the recent May bank holiday, the hottest on record, and the economic impact is visible in real time: buzzing beer gardens, busy cafés and thriving local attractions all benefiting from a surge in domestic travel as the sun makes an appearance. This is the visitor economy at work, and yet no government growth strategy has ever treated it as the serious economic lever it is. That needs to change.

The antidote to decline

The British getaway is not a niche pursuit. Millions of families choose to travel and holiday at home every year. It is often the most practical, affordable way to take a break, spend time together and explore parts of the country that you would otherwise miss. In 2025 alone Airbnb helped drive two million nights in places where traditional accommodation options were limited or unavailable,1 helping guests discover new destinations on their doorstep. Airbnb searches for the May bank holidays ran 15 percent ahead of last year.2 And as we look ahead to summer, searches for rural U.K. destinations are continuing to outpace previous years.3 Sure signs that, as international travel becomes more unpredictable and more expensive, the pull toward home is growing stronger.

And when guests travel across the U.K., they spend locally. A family booking an Airbnb in Whitby or Winchester doesn’t just sleep there. They eat out, visit the independent deli, drink the local ale, explore local attractions. In 2025 guests on Airbnb spent £3.2 billion in local restaurants, pubs, cafés and attractions across the U.K. An average of £450 per stay going directly into local economies and fueling small, local and family run businesses. Host recommendations alone drove 7.5 million visits to local spots, generating £620 million for hospitality businesses and venues. Direct support for exactly the kinds of businesses that the government’s Pride in Place program is designed to protect. The staycation, at scale, is an integral part of regional growth.

Hospitality at a tipping point

Here is the catch. The average cost of a U.K. overnight stay is up more than 25 percent in just two years.4 The result of seemingly small changes: tax increases, changes to business rates thresholds, higher National Insurance contributions and the abolition of tax relief for self-catering businesses, among others. Higher operating costs land on hospitality businesses, who pass them to guests already squeezed by inflation. Almost half of the general public recently said that booking a U.K. holiday now felt out of reach.5 Local businesses bear the consequences and families miss out. The government’s VAT cut on family attractions and kids meals was a welcome acknowledgement that many of the joyful things working people value most are becoming harder to afford. But it is a small step.

Millions of families choose to travel and holiday at home every year. It is often the most practical, affordable way to take a break, spend time together and explore parts of the country that you would otherwise miss.

Meanwhile, further regulation continues to be added to the sector, fueling additional pressure. We will soon see registration systems for short-term lets and tourism taxes across the country. The political instinct here is not irrational. Proportionate oversight is rightly justified and the case will be made for small levies to be put to public use, which should benefit residents and visitors alike. But there is a difference between targeted, fair and cohesive regulation and an accumulation of measures that treats the travel sector as a problem to be managed. Further calls for licensing requirements, health and safety checks, and new planning regimes for short stays will likely linger: each individually defensible, but collectively threatening further weight to the shoulders of small businesses.

The lesson from destinations that have continued to slide down this road is unambiguous. Add too much friction to the system and you will reduce the supply of affordable accommodation. Prices rise, demand falls and local businesses suffer the consequences. One year after Edinburgh introduced new licensing requirements, the average hotel price rose to a record high, increasing by 11.5 percent, while doing nothing to alleviate housing pressures across the city.6 Across the U.K., four in five Brits say that even a modest accommodation price increase would change their travel plans entirely. We should heed the warning signs.

A simple choice

The government has set out a worthy ambition: to spread prosperity, restore civic pride and rebuild the sense that opportunity is not confined to London. The visitor economy is one of the clearest and most direct routes to achieving prosperity in parts of the country often out of sight of Westminster. The family who books a stay in the hills of West Yorkshire and spends the week eating in local restaurants they would never have found elsewhere. The group of friends who take a long weekend in a market town and end up in a local pub on the back of a host recommendation. The couple who travel to a coastal community in the autumn, when most visitors have gone home. This is Pride in Place, not as a slogan, but as a daily economic reality.

There is a difference between targeted, fair and cohesive regulation and an accumulation of measures that treats the travel sector as a problem to be managed.

The choppy waters now faced by hospitality businesses cannot be calmed by policy choices in isolation. What the visitor economy needs now is not more barriers but support: light-touch, proportionate regulation that is easy to navigate, a pause on further cost impositions while the sector absorbs those already in play and a joined-up visitor economy strategy from the government that treats travel as the economic engine it is.

The visitors are there. Demand is growing. The opportunity for regional growth is clear.

This claim and all other figures mentioned above that are not referenced are based on Airbnb internal data sourced on 27 April 2026 covering stays from 1 Jan 2025 – 31 Dec 2025, UK guest polling from 13 May 2026 and an economic modelling report by Public First dated 31 May 2026 commissioned by Airbnb.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cgjpv9pdnpwo

https://www.gbnews.com/travel/best-uk-rural-holiday-destinations-2026-hereford

GB Tourist Annual Report: Published May 2025: VisitBritian https://www.visitbritain.org/sites/ind/files/2025-05/GB%20Tourist%202024%20report%2C%20domestic%20overnight%20trips.pdf

Gen pop polling conducted by Stonehaven on behalf of Airbnb that took place during April 17th-21st 2026.

https://news.airbnb.com/en-uk/edinburghs-short-term-let-rules-one-year-on-hotel-prices-soar-no-housing/