Visitors spent more than £1 billion in Britain last year as a result of activity by national tourism agency VisitBritain/VisitEngland latest figures show.
This means that for every pound invested in the agency, visitors spent £25 in Britain. As well as the UK Government investment, the agency had attracted £13 million of investment in cash and in-kind from commercial partners and delivered £2 million profit from its online shop – money which is reinvested into its activities to grow the value of tourism.
The results, announced today (Tuesday 9 October) at the agency’s annual review, come on the back of a strong 2017 for inbound tourism. VisitBritain forecasts that it will beat its ambition of 40 million inbound visits by 2020 this year. Brits have also been taking more holidays at home with visits and spend up by 6% in 2017.
Domestic tourism in England had also seen success from the growth in holidays to more frequent short-breaks. Domestic tourism accounted for almost 80% of all tourism activity and £70 billion was spent by domestic tourists in England last year, supporting millions of jobs.
The agency had also seen success in securing more international business events for the UK, growing this valuable economic sector and driving more business throughout the year and across the country. Just last week VisitBritain brought Chinese business events buyers here to do business, demonstrating to the world’s most valuable outbound market why the UK should be their destination of choice.
As the agency looked ahead to its 50th anniversary in 2019 Mr Ridgway said the priority was to continue to work in partnership with industry, Government and destinations to ensure tourism’s future resilience, growth and economic delivery across the UK.
