UK tourism report revised after problems identified with data
Figures released by VisitBritain about the number of tourist day trips taken in the UK have been re-issued after it identified problems with the original data.
The findings of the 2016 Great Britain Day Visits Survey have been revised after researchers discovered an error in processing the data and also realised that the figures had been affected by changes made to the way the survey is carried out.
It means that although the number of day visits in the UK still rose in 2016, they didn’t rise by as much as the first survey suggested.
Previously published figures said the number of day visits increased by 14%, with spending up by 10%.
The revised figures show day visits have actually only increased by 5%, with spending up by just 3%.
Sharing the revised figures with its members, UKinbound said although the growth has been revised down, it was still a climb, compared to a 4% decline from 2014-2015 in visit volume, and no change in expenditure.
The North East of England saw the biggest growth in visit volume from 2015-2016 at 17%.
Meanwhile, the South East England saw a decline of 3%. It was the only region to see a drop in visit volume.
Other regions saw growth of between 3% and 8%.
But when it came to spend there was no change in revenue found in the North East and a 13% increase in the South East, despite the drop in visitors.
The East Midlands saw the highest growth in visit value (19%), while the West Midlands and South West England saw the biggest fall (-22%).
A separate survey on the volume and value of domestic overnight trips found the total number of trips was down 4% in 2016, mainly due to a 9% decrease in the number of trips to visit friends and family.
The number of holiday trips remained static at 55.9 million, while business trips rose slightly to 16.8 million.
"The number of reported bed nights was found to have declined more than the number of trips, and combined with the overall increase in day visits as found in the GBDVS, suggests that UK residents are increasingly switching from overnight trips to day visits," said UKinbound.
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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