No getting around it: Britain needs more Americans

To walk through Leicester Square in central London is to endure a pummeling of the senses. Its jostling tourists, the glaring lights of its supersized casino and M&M‘s store, and a backing track of buskers’ out-of-tune guitars put it among the worst places in one of the world’s best cities.

The area also symbolizes an inevitable truth about London: Without the thronging masses of tourists, and the attractions designed to amuse them, the city might disintegrate completely.

Though most Londoners (this one included) would go to great lengths to avoid admitting it, the capital badly needs its millions of incomers each year. That’s why a recent analysis showing tourism numbers are still down compared to the pre-COVID era is so alarming.

Most of the well-trodden world has recovered from pandemic closures. California’s tourism economy, for instance, brought in $150 billion in 2023, surpassing its 2019 earnings; spending in Los Angeles was also up over the same period. But the city that calls itself “the greatest on Earth” appears to be losing visitors’ affections.

Americans remain Britain’s best customers in both visitor numbers and money spent, with more than a third of U.S. tourists coming from California or the greater New York City region. In 2023, a quarter of all visitor cash spent in Britain came from the United States.

Yet the glow once cast by our quaint accents, historic buildings and rustic pubs seems to be fading fast. High prices and taxes are part of the problem.

Britain’s Electronic Travel Authorization launched in January for visitors from the United States and other countries, charging Americans about $12 each. (A $20 charge is reportedly already being considered.) The United Kingdom’s air passenger taxes are among the highest in the world. Tourists can no longer reclaim the 20% value added tax on purchases they make on Oxford Street or at Harrods. And the government is mulling a city hotel tax similar to Venice’s.

London’s Tube, meanwhile, is among the most expensive metro systems worldwide; a ticket costs a third more than the fare for a comparable journey on San Francisco’s Muni. And staying in a four-star hotel for the night will set you back more than it would in L.A., Dubai or Tokyo.

Is it any wonder we’re slipping down the rankings? These rising costs, combined with bleak weather and a not inconsiderable outpouring of rabid anti-English messaging from Elon Musk, is hardly helping our cause. VisitBritain, the U.K.’s official tourism promoter, recently launched a video campaign to attract tourists with British locations used in Hollywood movies and television, but it will take more than a clip of Zendaya atop a red bus to fill the city again.

Some natives might be rejoicing at (marginally) less crowded walkways; every Londoner secretly believes it’s tourists’ privilege to visit us, after all. But ignoring what they bring to the city is foolish. London’s buzz is fueled partly by holiday-makers giddily whizzing from one outpost to the next; our constant outpouring of new events and food and drink offerings rolls on because we know the world is watching and that we have a reputation to maintain.

London has 85 Michelin-starred restaurants (compared with 74 in New York and 24 in L.A.); West End stages filled with megastars every night; street carnivals; drag bingos and brunches; pop-ups aplenty; and queues stretching ’round street corners for the latest viral bakery. For a nation that by and large would rather be tucked up with a cup of tea by 9 p.m. than hotfooting it from one rooftop bar to the next, the reality is that much of what’s in London is not for Londoners but rather a performative attempt to maintain our status among outsiders — and keep them coming in.

Without anyone to see the fruits of that labor — and, importantly, spend on it holiday-style where cash-strapped locals won’t — the capital as we know it would die off. Keeping up appearances is Britain’s national sport. Otherwise, who are we doing this for — ourselves?

So as not to be guilty of focusing on London and ignoring the rest of the U.K. (a stereotype of Londoners that is entirely true), it’s worth noting that the capital is, for most travelers, the entry point to the country. It’s our job to reel in arrivals with mega-concerts in football stadiums, sample sales and breathtaking museums; it’s the work of the provinces to serve up castles and historic corners, beaches and the rolling hills that Edwardian novels are made of. The further London’s cachet falls, the worse the impact on the rest of the country.

It’s entirely un-British to admit needing help, especially from America. But London depends on its status among U.S. travelers — and, perhaps most vitally, the ability to attract a new generation of them.

Charlotte Lytton is a journalist based in London.