Orange County Register
06/24/16

As Britain Votes to Leave EU, Will There Be Ripples, or More, from Across the Pond?
By Rachel Uranga

http://www.ocregister.com/articles/california-720540-see-dollar.html

Britain’s exit from the European Union shocked markets, reshuffled alliances and created a new political reality that experts say will be felt in Southern California…

…Another industry likely to take a hit is tourism. Last year, an estimated 700,000 tourists came to California from the U.K., according to Alan X. Reay, president of Atlas Hospitality group in Irvine.

“I think we’ll see a dramatic decrease in visitors if the pound doesn’t recover,” Reay said. “From a business traveler standpoint, we’ll see changes in travel fairly immediately. On the vacation side, people book three to four months out. So we’ll start to see it showing up in tourism numbers next year.”

Cheung at World Trade Center LA concurred.

“If the dollar is too strong, think about the negative impact this will have on the Harry Potter ride at Universal Studios or the ‘Star Wars’ park at Disneyland,” he said.