VisitBritain was heralding its best first quarter in 25 years following record visitor numbers from Western Europe.
The organisation, which is responsible for marketing British tourism says 5.5 million visitors came to the UK in the first quarter of 2004, up 11% year-on-year. Over two-thirds of visitors were from Western Europe.
Visit Britain chief executive, Tom Wright says the organisation’s Short Breaks campaign appeared to have boosted visitor numbers. The campaign notched up 1.75 million visitors to its websites in 11 countries in a six month period.
Visitor numbers from the US were also up 10% year-on-year to 830,000 during the first quarter. In March alone visitors from the US totalled 320,000, up 9% from the same month last year.
The organisation is confident that visitor numbers will continue to improve. “The anticipated GDP growth in Asian economies, VisitBritain’s expansion into further new markets this year and hundreds of innovative marketing activities will all contirbute to keeping Britain’s tourism industry in good health”, said Mr Wright.
Report by Ginny McGrath
