May 24, 2017 — Olivier Jager, CEO, ForwardKeys (the company which predicts future patterns by analysing 16 million booking transactions a day) said: “Manchester is primarily an outbound market, where travellers leave to visit somewhere else, rather than a top tourist destination. Therefore, we would anticipate that air travel will be somewhat less affected than if it were a world-renowned city to visit. That said, year-to-date long-haul arrivals are up 10% and forward bookings for long-haul travel to Manchester for the period June, July and August are currently running 12% ahead of where they were at the same time last year.

The UK, on the other hand, is a major tourism destination. This year, it has been leading a strong recovery in inbound tourism to Europe. Year to date long-haul arrivals in the UK are 11% up and forward bookings for long-haul travel during the June to August period are currently 16% ahead.

At this point, it is too early to say what the impact of the attack will be on travel to Manchester and to the UK but ForwardKeys will monitor bookings and report back when the picture to become clearer.”