If the pound plummets, British tourists will have to pay more for their vacations if and when they decide to go abroad. There is a silver lining to the storm clouds.
US tourists are taking advantage of the fall in sterling as tour operators call it their best month since October.
At a conference in Aberdeen this week, there was renewed optimism from executives whose businesses were adversely affected by the swine flu.
The economy has had its own recession for the last two years according to the chief executive of UK Inbound.
The US is the biggest source of visitors to inbound tourism, even though China is still closed due to the economic downturn. The average American tourist spends three times as much on a domestic trip as a UK holidaymaker.
It's helpful if anything that can encourage travel from the US can be found. The strong dollar could cause American tourists to spend more in 2020.
A year ago it was just over a dollar. I haven't checked for a while. In the last few days more people have put down hard dollars for next year, with the commitment that they are going to come.
The pound fell to a record low against the dollar on Monday and was still above the dollar on Friday.
Lana Bennett is the chief executive of Tours International, a family-run tour firm that caters to US visitors. There is a lot more certainty and people want to take full advantage of it.
She said that the US market was interested in the prospect of the king being crowned. However, rising inflation, energy costs and staff shortages at UK hotels and tour operators were challenges. We have to make sure the supply is ready.
Outbound tour operators are taking care of their patients. Abta said there was still a lot of demand for overseas travel in Britain after two years of Covid restrictions.
Customers have told us that holidays are one of the last things they will cut back on when they're trying to save money.
Abta said early booking could lock in prices for hotels and flights that operators had secured, for those who fear the value of their pounds may tank further.
The cost of a holiday to the US is likely to be more expensive for Britons than it was last year.
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Ian Taylor, the executive editor of the leading trade publisher Travel Weekly, said that a travel chief executive had ruled out taking his family on a US holiday.
The impact will be more nuanced than people think. Turkey is cheap and the eurozone is in recession. It will be costly to the US and the Caribbean.
The impact of the economic crisis would take time to show, but there had been strong forward bookings, according to the chief executive of the PC Agency.
He predicted that there would be more deals to encourage UK customers to leave. They need a good summer but they have had an amazing one this year.
Even if he was confident that holidays remained "the sacred thing", Virgin Atlantic's Shai Weiss expressed concern, saying that the mini-budget was hurting consumers.
Airlines face huge additional costs in dollars for fuel and aircraft purchases and so they are pinning hopes on soaring custom from the US.
While domestic consumers reel from mortgage rate rises and soaring inflation, for visitors, the UK is on sale.
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