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Overseas visits to the UK reach record levels
VisitBritain/VisitEngland has taken the credit for an extra £872 million in visitor spending generated across the UK in the last year.
Justifying the value of its work, it said for every pound invested in the national tourism agency, £20 of additional visitor spend was generated for the economy.
According to the organisation’s 2016-17 annual review, released today, there were a record 23.1 million overseas visits to the UK from January to July this year, up 8% on the same period last year, with visitors spending £13.3 billion, up 9%.
VisitBritain is forecasting that overseas visits to the UK will increase 6% to 39.7 million in 2017, with spending up 14% to £25.7 billion by the end of this calendar year
Meanwhile, Brits are also taking more holidays at home. Figures show that from January to June this year, domestic overnight holidays in England rose 7% to a record 20.4 million with visitors spending £4.6 billion, up 17% and also a record.
British Tourist Authority chairman Steve Ridgway CBE said while a 16% fall in the exchange rate was making visiting Britain even more attractive, it had taken its toll on overseas marketing budgets.
But he said despite this the organisation had delivered for British tourism.
Ridgway, former chief executive of Virgin Atlantic Airways, is leading the tourism industry’s bid for a sector deal under the UK Government’s Industrial Strategy.
"Tourism is an economic powerhouse, worth £127 billion annually to the economy and a job creator right across Britain. Two and a half times bigger than the automotive industry, employing three million, tourism is one of our most successful exports and needs no trade deals to compete globally," he said.
"Tourism is a fiercely competitive global industry and you cannot just build a strong, resilient industry on a weaker currency. We must continue to invest in developing world-class tourism products, getting Britain on the wish-list of international and domestic travellers. And we must make it easy for visitors to make that trip."
Ridgway believes that with a sector deal the UK tourism industry could more than double in value to £268 billion within a decade.
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Bev
Editor in chief Bev Fearis has been a travel journalist for 25 years. She started her career at Travel Weekly, where she became deputy news editor, before joining Business Traveller as deputy editor and launching the magazine’s website. She has also written travel features, news and expert comment for the Guardian, Observer, Times, Telegraph, Boundless and other consumer titles and was named one of the top 50 UK travel journalists by the Press Gazette.
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