UK attracts 7% more visitors in 2006
A record of more than 32 million overseas visitors travelled to the UK last year, a seven per cent rise over 2005.
Spending increased by eight per cent to £15.4 billion, another record for the inbound industry.
But the boss of national tourism agency VisitBritain said more needed to be done to persuade international holidaymakers to spend more time and more money on their visits.
Commenting on the provisional data from the Office for National Statistics for January – December 2006, VisitBritain chief executive Tom Wright said: “Despite the challenges Britain faced in 2006, this is a strong result and another step forward in achieving our ambition to raise the value of Britain’s £74 billion visitor economy.
“However, we must continue to convince international visitors – and leisure visitors in particular – to stay longer and spend more while they are here.
“We must explore ever-more creative means of attracting them in an increasingly competitive global tourism environment. The North American market, for instance, has yet to fully recover to its all-time high in 2000 and so this year we plan to launch a new long-term campaign to present Britain in a dynamic light.
“The inbound tourism industry is a vital component of Britain’s national economy. International consumers spend over £15 billion ‘buying’ British tourism – that’s more than they spend buying crude oil, vehicles, or food, beverages and tobacco from us.
“Our marketing activities have already generated an average return on investment over the last three years of £44 in inbound visitor spending for every £1 from the public purse, but Government and the commercial sector must continue to make long-term investment if we are fully to realise the potential of the visitor economy.”
VisitBritain’s 46 international websites, www.visitbritain.com, will be relaunched this year to provide more information in 26 languages.
by Phil Davies
Phil Davies
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