The BBC admit that this will be a good year for tourism in the UK.
Finally, the BBC - that bastion of negative reporting about the economy - have been forced to admit that actually this could be rather a good year for tourism in the UK.
In an article on the BBC website (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/7916623.stm), they report that an additional 20% of holidaymakers will stay in the UK this year. They did omit to mention that the £/Euro exchange rate is going to increase inward tourism even more - but then there wasn't a quote from Robert Peston to add gloom to the article, so it wasn't all bad!
So, an increase in tourism can only be good for heritage retail this year. That was certainly the feeling at the Association for Cultural Enterprises Convention last week as well - 2009 could be a vintage year!