Eurostar sales dive
PASSENGER numbers on Eurostar trains have plunged this year despite French and Belgian shoppers rushing to London to take advantage of the weak pound.
The Channel Tunnel service carried 1.92million people in the first three months of the year, down 11.5 per cent on last year, with sales down 5.8 per cent at £168.1million.
Chief executive Richard Brown blamed a reduction in services following the fire in the tunnel last September and a 20 per cent decline in business sales. “Businessmen travel for work not fun. It’s been seen right across the travel industry,” he said.
However leisure travellers were proving more recession resilient with sales up 2.2 per cent over the period, led by shoppers from France and Belgium coming to the capital to take advantage of favour-able exchange rates.
“People are giving more priority to short breaks than spending on new clothes and eating out. They want to relax and get away from their day-to-day cares and they are choosing places that are familiar and secure such as Paris and Brussels,” said Brown.