With a weak dollar and strong pound making London even more expensive as a destination for American visitors than it usually is – and we’re not a cheap city to begin with, even for us! – the West End’s difficult summer could have been anticipated before it even happened. But now a new survey just issued by cheapflights.com confirms what we’ve been suspecting: that London is no longer high on the list of possible destinations for Americans, slipping from 7th most popular destination for which deals were sought on the site in July 2006 to occupy 15th place in 2007.
As cheapflights.com have noted in a press release, “Normally the top main destinations sought by Cheapflights’ US users are seasonally stable with little variation. Predictably these are the leisure destinations of Las Vegas (1), Orlando (2) and Atlanta (6) and the business destinations of New York (3), Chicago (4), and Los Angeles (6). London’s drop from its normal 7th position to 15th is very unusual and likely linked to the increased expense of travel driven by rising exchange rates against the Dollar.”
But reverse traffic has been driven up: for UK users of the site, there’s been a 38% surge in users searching for deals to New York compared to July 2006. And, as I’ve noted here before, with ticket prices in the West End actually turning out to be more expensive than they are on Broadway, you’re better off not just shopping for goods in New York but also for theatre. And you get to see it first there, too. Not to mention in buildings that are fit for the purpose, with seats that aren’t falling apart and air-conditioning as standard. No wonder the West End is being left behind, in every sense.
