UK regions boosted by rise in tourism spend
Overseas visitors are spending more in the UK regions, according to new figures from VisitBritain.
Spending in the first nine months of 2014 hit new record levels in records in Wales (£303 million), Scotland (£1.5 billion), East of England (£693 million), North West (£849 million) and the South East (£1.7 billion)
VisitBritain said the increases were likely due to Yorkshire’s hosting of the Tour de France Grand Depart in July, President Obama’s attendance at the NATO Summit in Newport in September and the 2014 UEFA Super Cup in Cardiff in August.
Spending by overseas visitors to London, meanwhile, was also up, reaching £8.9 billion and making it the strongest nine-month period on record.
Scotland, which hosted the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow in August and the Ryder Cup at Gleneagles in September, saw visits up 12% and spend up 7% compared to 2013.
Both short and long haul source countries showed overall growth in tourism to Britain in the first nine months.
Next week, VisitBritain will launch a £3 million Countryside is GREAT campaign to showcase the British countryside.
"We also secured £4m of advertising space in Heathrow airport to promote travel on from London and will continue to work with regional gateways such as Manchester and Birmingham to spread valuable inbound tourists to the nations and regions in record numbers," said Patricia Yates, Director of Strategy and Communications.
Bev
Editor in chief Bev Fearis has been a travel journalist for 25 years. She started her career at Travel Weekly, where she became deputy news editor, before joining Business Traveller as deputy editor and launching the magazine’s website. She has also written travel features, news and expert comment for the Guardian, Observer, Times, Telegraph, Boundless and other consumer titles and was named one of the top 50 UK travel journalists by the Press Gazette.
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