According to online UK travel agency Teletext, they have seen an increase in interest in holidays to the USA since the defeat of Donald Trump in the US presidential election.
1. The Trump Slump
In January 2017 when Trump became President of the country, the number of people travelling to the US from Britain saw a 17% drop, despite the overall number of outbound trips from the UK being up 9%. Although changes in the exchange rate could also be partly to blame for this as the pound was weaker in 2016 than in 2017, the Office for National Statistics stated the number of British visitors at that time was still 20,000 lower than the previous month, suggesting the decrease was in fact a ‘Trump Slump’.
From the bottom of my heart: thank you. pic.twitter.com/s76oHFkr66
— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) November 8, 2020
2. Increased bookings
In 2020 however, comparing the 9 day post-election period to the 9 day pre-election period, Teletext has seen a large increase in families searching on their website for USA trips. They reported that in the nine days following the vote for USA President, the number of families looking for holidays in Florida rose 197%, whilst holiday searches for Miami saw a 508% rise and interest in Orlando increased by 154%. Searches for USA city breaks were also up 490% while there was a 269% rise in interest in Las Vegas.
Wayne Perks, Managing Director of Teletext, said, ‘All of our US destinations are seeing a lot of interest. The timing of the additional interest seems to correlate to that of the Presidential Election, so we can only assume that Joe Biden, with his more progressive Democratic viewpoints, is being perceived a creating a destination that more welcoming and inclusive for UK holidaymakers.’
