Each month, as part of the Cultural Enterprises Commercial Performance Barometer survey, we ask our members a ‘special question’. In July, we asked cultural organisations what impact they felt US political developments such as tariffs have had on trade and visitor numbers.
Of 81 organisations that responded:
- 19% stated tariffs had negatively impacted trade
- 16% felt tariffs had negatively impacted visitor numbers.
The impact on trade
The impact on trade – in particular ecommerce – is relatively clear-cut, with members indicating that tariffs have increased their costs, driven down sales and added complexity to the selling process.
“We are not able to reorder our bestsellers due to tariff increases.”
“The US was the main country we sent overseas orders to. We’d already lost Europe due to Brexit (we’re too under-resourced to be able to do what’s needed), and now we’ve lost America as well. Our overseas orders were a tiny percentage of online sales but every penny counts. It’s a shame as it was a growing market.”
“We have ceased sales from our online shop to the US due to complexities of tariffs.”
“US Tariffs have impacted trade sales in relation to publications – we’ve seen a significant fall in US sales of our publications and our agent has referred to US tariffs impacting.”
“US orders on our online died a death as soon as they were announced moving from 9% of our online total to under 1%.”
It’s notable that those impacted were located across the UK, and not necessarily in US tourist hotspots.
The impact on visitors
One in six felt that there had already been a negative impact on visitors, particularly high in in London, Edinburgh and other tick-box destinations for US tourists. Members stated:
“We are seeing fewer visitors from the US by about 50%.”
“We’re seeing the impact of recent political developments with an approx. 16% drop in American ticket sales.”
“We don’t think we have seen the worst of this yet and are expecting more of an impact to Autumn visitor numbers.”
Quite how much the current fall in visitors from across the pond is down to tariffs is debatable. US visitors tend to book their trips to the UK at least six months in advance so, as illustrated by a member above, the full impact may not hit until the autumn. Other factors such as an increase in the price of getting into the UK, global instability, and a weakening dollar may also have played a role. Perhaps, after a record couple of years of US travellers, demand for UK holidays is just dropping?
Regardless of whether tariffs have dragged down visitors to date, the impact is likely to come at some point. In his excellent blog in April, David Edwards of Scattered Clouds highlights how fewer international business trips to/from the US, he argues, may mean a dent in premium airline revenues, and a rise in fares or trimmed route networks.
VisitBritain’s flight searches dashboard (produced in collaboration with ForwardKeys) further highlights the potential medium-term impact. Flight searches to the UK from the US were more than 10% lower than in 2024 for each month this year – 15% down in the latest reporting period, in June.
Conclusion
So in summary, it’s clear that venues reliant on the US for trade or visitors have been negatively impacted by US political developments, with the worst likely to come. It is perhaps more important than ever to diversify income streams, and to reach out to other audiences. On that note, and in the spirit of ending on a positive, one of our members stated:
“The impact that we have seen is in the number of Canadian visitors we are getting. This has increased against last year and is believed to be as a result of Canadians switching their travel plans away from the US.”
So perhaps there is some silver lining after all.
About the Commercial Performance Barometer
The findings and insights from the Commercial Performance Barometer are compiled by Jon Young at Decision House. Members can learn much more via the online dashboard where you can filter by sub-group and merge months. We have now had more than 250 sites contribute to the Barometer (June was our best month yet), and we’re looking forward to continuing to grow this service in the coming months. Members can expect the latest survey invite on the first Monday of each month.
For more information about the Monthly Commercial Performance Barometer, including to check who receives the survey for your organisation, please contact tom@culturalenterprises.org.uk or jon.young@decisionhouse.co.uk.
