Abroad, they hate tourists; it's expensive at home. So where do we go on holiday?

THERE’S been a drop in the number of tourists in London lately. In fact last year, tourism was down by 7.3 per cent compared with 2019 and I have a feeling that this year is even worse.

- Fat Tony

I’m not surprised the cost of virtually everything has spiked in the past couple of years; all we see in the press is doom and gloom. You can no longer get a half-decent hotel for less than £200 a night, even when booking in advance. Your average restaurant meal sets a family of four back at least £100 and let’s not even start on the activities!

I mean, we are so lucky to live in a city with as many free-entry museums and beautiful parks as we have but you should be prepared to pay an arm and a leg for anything else. It feels as though, since the inflation crisis began a couple of years ago, we’ve simply not been able to keep things under control.

With that, while still busy, the city feels noticeably easier to get around than previous summers. Restaurants aren’t packed out. The streets aren’t heaving. This issue of costs obviously goes for us Londoners too and I’m not entirely sure how we’re supposed to keep our chins up anymore.

What with Keir Starmer’s announcement about tax hikes this week, it looks like the end to price increases is nowhere in sight yet. Add to that the decision to increase the price cap on gas and electricity again and we can expect people to continue to be very careful with their spending.