Only 13% of the 30 million foreign tourists who come to Britain visit coastal towns and cities, according to a new report from VisitBritain.
As it prepared to launch British Tourism Week with a series of parties on seaside piers across the country, the tourist board said 3.9million overseas travellers visited the coast in 2009, spending £2 billion on trips.
Scotland‘s coastline attracted the highest number with 768,000 foreigners visiting Edinburgh, 312,000 heading to Glasgow and 180,000 to Inverness.
Top English destinations were Liverpool, whose coastal attractions include the redeveloped Albert Dock and canal which drew 162,000 visitors. Brighton and Hove, which includes two piers and eight miles of coastline, had 128,000 foreign visitors and sits fifth in the table. Bristol attracted 119,000 and Cardiff’s coastline, which features the coast of Glamorgan, welcomed 110,000.
Germans were the most prolific coastal visitors – making over half a million visits – and there were over 400,000 visits from French and American visitors.
Interestingly Chinese and Russian visitors are much more likely to visit the coast (one in four visitors) than visitors from France and India (one in eight).
By Linsey McNeill
