VisitBritan is reporting a record-breaking year for 2015 inbound tourism numbers and spend, with the upward trend set to continue in 2016.
In spite of the strength of sterling, spending by overseas visitors is predicted to reach almost £23 billion in 2016, a 4.2% increase on spending this year which is expected to top out at £22 billion, a 0.7% increase on 2014.
The number of overseas visitors to the UK is expected to rise next year to 36.7million visits, up 3.8% on 2015 which is likely to see about 35.4 million visits by the year end.
The forecast puts VisitBritain on track to realise its ambition for growing international visits to Britain by more than 20% over the next five years to 42 million visits by 2020, which could see an additional £4.5 billion in visitor spend.
Chief executive Sally Balcombe said: "Everything we do is motivated by the goal to add value to the tourism industry by building our competitive tourism offer and driving economic growth and jobs across all our nations and regions, so that the benefits of tourism are felt across the whole of Britain.
"We are competing in a tough international environment and these results highlight how strongly the tourism sector, one of the UK’s fastest growing export industries, has performed and how the Government’s tourism strategy, supported by the GREAT campaign, is producing results."
VisitBritain’s campaigns have continued to produce results and generated an extra £2.5 billion in international visitor spend in Britain during the last four years.
This means that every £1 invested in VisitBritain’s activities has resulted in an overseas visitor spending £21 in Britain.
In addition, £630 million has been delivered by VisitBritain, as its continuing role as a partner in the cross-UK Government GREAT campaign.
