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I don’t think @Joan or anyone else. would argue that all Europeans will stop visiting the UK, so not sure why you mention it. Nowhere in her post did she say this, so not sure why you brought it up.
I can tell you that EU workers are already leaving the UK in droves. This has created a massive problem in the NHS. for example, 62,000 NHS staff in England are EU nationals - 5.6% of all staff.
About 8 thousand have already left the UK. They cite increased racism in the UK post Brexit and employment uncertainty due to the government not being clear as to whether they can stay as key reasons for leaving.
The NHS currently has recruitment campaigns running in the EU for doctors and nurses, before immigration regulations change when we exit, but are struggling to recruit.
Visitors numbers from the EU have already fallen.
So why not look at the evidence of the existing impact rather than waiting to post 2019.
The problem of American gun lawlessness isn’t just about perception of risk for the tourist, which you rightly point out is low. It’s the feeling of revulsion gun culture engenders, it’s just not attractive as a place to visit. I’d feel the same about visiting other countries with such problems. I want civilised.
When Trump is filmed at some NRA rally, slating the UK for recent knife incidents in London, and saying how the US is much safer than the UK due to guns, we get that feeling that Trump lives in an insane parallel reality of his own. As the American Psychiatric Association say, he has significant personality disorders. The international situation with Trump rightly terrifies us.
Isn’t the real craziness how we have failed to attract enough UK citizens to work in the NHS? Training bursaries for nurses would be a start. International exchange is all very well but not to plug gaps caused by major structural problems.
I certainly agree about the ditching of bursaries for nurse training, but I think it’s less about attracting people to train/work in the NHS, and Social Services, than the fact that the Coalition Government’s austerity programme ditched all the workforce planning, cut training places to the bone, and implemented Andrew Lansley’s Health and Social Care Act 2014. This was the last straw in terms of draining funding into the private sector. I left the NHS/SS in 2010, and have watched in horror as the damage (yes, that word again…) caused by this short sighted Act accumulated. Hopeful they really will roll some of the Act back, as announced on Monday. A good start would be rolling back on commissioning, to reinvest on the frontline.
I fear a rant erupting, but I was listening to a nurse’s recent memoir on Radio 4 and was shocked to hear her say that she did not learn to give injections until AFTER she qualified; after three years bloody training! What a bloody awful waste of resources.
Yep. The first step is getting away from the idea of an internal market and privatisation, otherwise it’s just more public money going after bad. It’s naughty for us to talk politics but I am near a major hospital and have had a fair few nurse guests. They come with agencies because the money is so good, I don’t blame them but what we really need is local permanent staff.
You’ll have us! The husband and I are planning to visit the US again next years after a gap of too many years. And whoever happens to be in the White House I can guarantee that the scenery will be as stunning, the cities as interesting, the culture as vibrant and the people as open, friendly and welcoming to visitors as we always found them in the past.
I’m selfishly happy to see that the US has been knocked off its perch in second place by Spain, though … although I suspect this is mainly the Barcelona effect.
The reality is that we don’t train enough staff to work as doctors, nurses, mental health workers etc. And many of those that we do, move abroad where they can get much better wages/warmer climes. Or they go straight into the private sector here.
I agree we need to train and pay for training more doctors, nurses and other health professionals but if we are going to do this, it must be on the basis that they provide a minimum commitment to the NHS in terms of years worked if the public purse is paying for their training.
Social and economic trends are not easily explained by a single factor. Good studies don’t even have Trump data yet. What you have are measurements of a single year in office. Many of those plans were made before the election. In five years we will be able to say what the overall Trump effect actually was.
Anecdotally, I agree that I have far fewer international visitors. However, I’m busier than ever.
As someone who works in marketing and comms I always ask my guests why they choose my place. I would say about 90% mention my reviews and ratings. All mention my photos. Quite a few mention access to the kitchen. Some mention they were reassured by my profile and detail I provide in my listing. I think only two have mentioned my Superhost status.
When they are here all mention they love the bathrobes, complimentary bath stuff, free tea/coffee and the personal tour.
I think if you are a great host like you @KKC with strong reviews, then as long as you are not in an area of low demand, you will find that home guests will replace international guests.
Helsi, the most recent data (House of Commons Feb 18) that I am aware of, shows EU staff numbers at 62,000 (as you say) which is 5.6% of the NHS workforce (NHS data apparently), for some years it was usually around 5.2% so yes employees leave and employees join, but the % of the workforce is larger than it was a few years ago!
I mention the year March 2020, as it will be a year after the EU exit (transition arrangements will probably be in place) and that will be a good first time to measure whether it has had any impact on visitor numbers. My response to Joan was in the context of the OP post and Joan’s response to Ken which you may like to re read but to remove any ambiguity I will repeat "I think it’s the Brexit effect, with people trying to visit before we shut them out, or more pertinently, before we shut ourselves in’. It’s interesting that a remain argument seems to swing both ways, if they come it’s become of Brexit as we will shut them out and if they don’t come, its because of Brexit! I am sure you can appreciate this is really rather silly and does no service to some of the legitimate arguments remain supporters make. Look, the UK is still, thankfully, a multi cultural and very tolerant country which is why so many people want to come to work and live here. Let’s deal vigorously with serious problems as they arise but it is unhelpful to exaggerate or invent problems. And as for wider problems in the NHS, well there are a myriad reasons for that but it still remains an excellent universal health care system, free at the point of use, and many of us will roundly continue to defend that with our MPs etc.
I know what the most recent data is - after all I quoted it earlier in this thread, so not sure why you needed to repeat it?
I’m also perfectly well aware of what @Joan wrote in relationship to Brexit. Nowhere on this thread has she said, as you claim 'that all Europeans will stop visiting the UK.
Unfortunately you putting words into her mouth means that the only one who looks rather silly is you.
I volunteer with refugees and can tell you the UK definitely isn’t a very tolerant country and we are only multi-cultural in parts. They are regularly called names, spat at, threatened and have their homes daubed with graffiti. Some have been physically attacked. Some E.U. citizens have experienced similar abuse. My French friend who volunteered as a Police Community Support Officer regularly suffered racist abuse on the streets because people thought she was Polish.
Where I live a disabled refugee man suffered from eight years of racist abuse (physical and mental) ignored by the police and council (who saw him as trouble maker because of his frequent reports of abuse to them) until final his neighbour stabbed him to death because he didn’t like the colour of his skin.
There is lots of research showing the sharp increase in racist violence and racial attacks since Brexit.
I have not noticed any decline in my international guest bookings, but I did notice that when a guest from a foreign country leaves a review, the review will show up at the BOTTOM of all my older from YEARS ago US reviews. Not sure if that has any impact. Why would Airbnb do that as I would like my most recent reviews to show FIRST!
This new sort order went into effect almost two years ago. However, if you are German, you see the reviews from German guests first; Japanese guests see those reviews first. There is then a sort order that I haven’t bothered to figure out with what appears to be a geographic concentric circles by distance.
If you click on the host profile, and then again on the profile picture, you can see the reviews in chronological order.
@anon67190644, Hi Susan, Not on mine - I have 3 room listings and they are grouped together through my profile, however all of the guests from other countries still show up at the BOTTOM of all my reviews.
Susan @anon67190644 - HUGE apologies - you are correct - I was looking at one my rooms. I just double checked and it shows all the reviews in chronological order. OOPS sorry about that.
We started renting two guest rooms in our home in mid-2013. We are a small town in Michigan and we never thought we’d have guests.
This is how it’s gone for us:
Mid-2013: 7 US, 1 Asia
2014: 8 US, 2 Europe, 1 North America
2015: 16 US, 3 North America, 2 Europe
2016: 25 US, 3 North America, 2 Europe, 1 South America
2017: 13 US (Trump effect?)
2018 (so far booked): 7 US, 1 Europe
In that count, 5 were long term foreign student interns. (4 Europe, 1 North America)
In mid-2016, we put a vacation rental on Maui Hawaii onto Airbnb.
This is how it’s gone:
Mid-2016: 18 US, 2 North America, 2 Europe, 1 Australia
2017: 33 US, 3 North America, 3 Europe, 1 Australia, 1 Asia
2018 (so far booked): 16 US, 3 North America, 2 Australia, 5 Europe, 1 Asia
2019 (so far booked): 2 US, 1 North America
