Records broken by UK tourism growth

An extra £872million in visitor spending was generated across the UK in the last year as a result of work by national tourism agency VisitBritain/VisitEngland, according to the latest figures.
A previous VisitBritain campaign which featured Bamburgh Castle, as pictured here at Heathrow Airport.A previous VisitBritain campaign which featured Bamburgh Castle, as pictured here at Heathrow Airport.
A previous VisitBritain campaign which featured Bamburgh Castle, as pictured here at Heathrow Airport.

This means for every pound invested in the organisation, £20 of additional visitor spend was generated for the economy.

The figures, announced on Tuesday at its 2016-17 annual review, come on the back of strong growth from inbound tourism.

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From January to July this year, there were a record 23.1million overseas visits to the UK, up eight per cent on the same period last year with visitors spending £13.3billion, up nine per cent.

And VisitBritain is forecasting that overseas visits to the UK will increase six per cent to 39.7million in 2017 with spending up 14 per cent to £25.7billion by the end of this calendar year.

Brits are also taking more holidays at home. From January to June this year, domestic overnight holidays in England rose seven per cent to a record 20.4million with visitors spending £4.6billion, up 17 per cent and also a record.

British Tourist Authority chairman Steve Ridgway CBE said the 16 per cent fall in the exchange rate was making visiting Britain even more attractive, but had impacted the overseas marketing budgets quite heavily.

Despite this, the organisation had delivered for British tourism.