VisitBritain has revealed the results of a wide-ranging analysis of UK visits that included going to a live sporting event – including football.
The survey found that around 1.3 million tourists went to a live sporting event in 2011, that’s 4% of all visits, with the total amount spent by this group reaching UKP1.1bn.
Visitors who played sport in Britain spent UKP1.2bn, so as a total figure, sports tourism is worth UKP2.3bn to the UK economy each year, according to VisitBritain.
The greatest volume of spectators for golf came from the USA,
Rugby, not surprisingly, is popular with the Irish and French with cricket by far attracting the most spectators from Australia.
Horse racing is popular with visitors from Asia Pacific and Middle East but has truly global appeal.
