UK drops ‘You’re invited’ tourism advert

The spokesman told The Guardian that the tourism authority was not aware of reports of tourists leaving Britain early or cancelling trips to visit the country due to the riots in London and other parts of Britain.

“At the moment these are isolated incidents occurring away from tourist attractions. Tourists have not been affected,” he said.

Mary Rance,head of trade body UKInbound,which represents businesses in the tourism industry,said: “The riots of the past few days,particularly in London,are most unfortunate for the global image of the UK and not just ahead of the Olympics but for the country’s short term and long term inbound tourism industry”.

“With scenes of looting,violence and lawlessness flashing across TV screens across the globe it is absolutely vital that the government and its agencies,as well as the UK tourism industry,work hard to put things in context.

“London is still one of the greatest cities in the world with an enviable record of safety. It’s important we stress that these developments are not typical”

In a statement,the European Tour Operators Association (ETOA) sought to reassure tourists that London remained safe It said: “The events have been largely confined to secondary shopping centres in the suburbs”.

“So long as the damage is contained outside of central London,then there will be little long-term impact on demand for London as a tourist destination”.

Deborah Griffin,director of Deloitte’s leisure corporate finance advisory team,said: “It’s certainly not good. All of it has been flashed around the world and that will put people off,but normally people’s memories are quite short-term so it should not have a long-term impact”.