The US border reopening and general relaxing of travel restrictions led to British services firms seeing the sharpest jump in new international business since 2017 last month, according to new figures.
Service sector businesses including airlines and travel agents reported a surge in new work from abroad in November, the closely-watched IHS Markit/CIPS UK Services PMI survey found.This was mainly due to increased travel bookings and higher levels of spending by overseas visitors. Some firms said a rebound in international business travel also led to growing export sales.
The sector reported seeing its fastest overall rise in new business for the past five months, with over 30% of businesses surveyed saying they saw a rise in fresh trade in the month.It comes after the West End’s pubcos and retailers reported seeing a rise in footfall and trade – many nearly reaching 2019 levels – in November.
