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UK arrivals boost VisitBritain
VisitBritain will increase its investment in new and developing markets over the next 12 months after a sharp growth in visitor arrivals during 2005.
Provisional figures from the Office for National Statistics show overall arrivals grew 8% to almost 30 million with spending climbing 9% to £14.3 billion – a record.
The biggest growth came from the rest of world region, which includes China, India, Eastern Europe and South East Asia where numbers rose 18% to 6.4 million. All have all been earmarked as potentially lucrative markets.
To reflect the growth, Visit Britain said plans are in place to increase investment in 11 new and developing markets.
“South East Asia, Russia and Eastern Europe offer some of the best prospects for high value visits and the tourism industry cannot ignore India’s 53% year-on-year increase in visitor spending,” a statement said.
Meanwhile, arrivals from North America during 2005 fell 3% to 4.2 million with Western Europe increasing 8% to 19.3 million.
VisitBritain chief executive Tom Wright said: “This is a strong result for Britain’s £74 billion visitor economy and another step forward in achieving our target of raising its value to £100 billion.
“While many businesses faced a difficult summer there are clear signs of recovery with a record 12.1 million customers spending £375 million in London’s theatre land last year – a third of them from overseas.”
Wright said one of the challenges is encouraging visitors to spend more cash while on holiday. While the amount of time international visitors spend in the UK has remained constant, the average spend has fallen 7.3% to £466 since 2000.
“In the face of an increasingly competitive global tourism environment we must continue to explore ever-more creative means of attracting international visitors to Britain,” he said.
VisitBritain said its marketing activities produce a return of £47 for every £1 invested by the government, but stressed hitting the £100 billion target “will be a tough challenge.”
“Government and the commercial sector must continue to make long-term investment if we are to fully realise the potential of the visitor economy,” said Wright.
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