Britain needs big spenders
British tourism enjoyed a record year in 2004, smashing previous records for visitor numbers, but visitors aren’t spending enough.
The latest statistics from the Office for National Statistics show that 27.5 million visitors came to Britain in 2004 – up 11% on the previous year, and up 7% from the previous record year, which was 1998.
Despite the buoyant visitor figures, factors such as the unfavourable rate of exchange for US visitors and the tendency for visitors to take shorter breaks, means spend per visit is still down on previous years.
Although total overseas visitor spend in 2004 reached £12.8 billion, up 8% from 2003, it has only just drawn level with 2000.
VisitBritain, the organisation set with the task of marketing Britain to the rest of the world and marketing England to the British, is attempting to increase spend and visitor numbers. Chief executive Tom Wright said the British tourism industry could not afford to be complacent on the back of strong visitor numbers.
He said VisitBritain plans to target new markets this year including the Czech Republic, Greece, Hungary, Malaysia and Thailand to encourage more visitors to Britain.
Similar campaigns targeted at China, Poland, Russia and South Korea in 2004 were deemed a success as visitor numbers from outside Western Europe and North America grew most last year.
While visitor numbers from North America increased 9% to 4.35 million, and from Western Europe increased 10% to 17.8 million, the largest growth was in visitors from ‘the rest of the world’, which increased 20% to 5.4 million, overtaking visitor numbers from North America.
Report by Ginny McGrath
Ginny McGrath
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