Tourism gap between London and the regions widens – ever more tourist spend going to London
VisitEngland is to tackle the widening gap between tourism to London and the rest of England. Since 2008 the number of inbound trips to London has increased by 14%, while the number of trips to other areas of England is still 4% lower than it was before the recession. A conference entitled: “Mind the Gap: Addressing the Tourism Divide” is discussing whether there is enough investment in infrastructure outside London. The regions want a larger proportion of tourism income. The Deputy chair of the Regional Growth Fund Independent Advisory Panel said: “We now need to … boost tourism outside London. This means promoting the use of regional airports and making in-bound tourists more aware of all the visitor attractions across the country with ready-made packages they can take up before they leave home.” VisitScotland said securing new direct flight routes has been invaluable to their increase in tourism. A report for Visit Britain in late 2013 showed tourism spending in London was 47% by international tourists (53% domestic) but 21% international (79% domestic) for the rest of England. No reason for further emphasising the London/regions divide by yet another south east runway.
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Tourism gap between London and the regions widens
10.6.2014 (Travel Mole)
VisitEngland is to tackle the widening gap between tourism to London and the rest of England.
Since 2008 the number of inbound trips to London has increased by 14%, while the number of trips to other areas of England is still 4% lower than it was before the recession.
Experts across the transport and tourism industry are meeting at the Mind the Gap: Addressing the Tourism Divide conference today (in Liverpool) to discuss whether there is enough investment in infrastructure outside of London.
Deputy chair of the Regional Growth Fund Independent Advisory Panel, Lord Shipley said: “We now need to embrace the opportunity this presents to boost tourism outside London.
“This means promoting the use of regional airports and making in-bound tourists more aware of all the visitor attractions across the country with ready-made packages they can take up before they leave home.”
Meanwhile Visit Britain statistics released yesterday showed a 20% rise in international spend in Scotland with it outperforming London and the UK as a whole.
Mike Cantlay, chairman of VisitScotland said: “With the success of Brave and the Year of Natural Scotland, the country benefited from an unprecedented level of international marketing which attracted more visitors from overseas and a 20% spike in spend.
“Securing new direct flight routes has also been invaluable, making it easier for visitors to reach Scotland and connect with our stunning urban and rural attractions.”
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The Visit England website says:
Tourism is one of England’s most important industries. According to the 2013 Deloitte publication, “Tourism: jobs and growth The economic contribution of the tourism economy in the UK”, tourism is worth £106.0bn to England´s economy, taking into account direct and indirect impacts, and supports 2.58 million jobs.
- 101.8 million domestic overnight trips were taken in England by Great Britain residents in 2013, generating a total of £18.7bn.
- There were 28.6 million overseas visitors to England in 2013, with spending of £18.4bn.
- 1.4 billion day trips were taken to English destinations in 2013, with spending of some £46bn.
Summary of Facts and Figures
Our English Tourism Factsheet brings together all the most important facts and figures relating to domestic overnight, inbound and day visitor tourism, with latest year data and trends since 2006.
The factsheet is available for download in PDF or Word. We have also produced an infographic that summarises some of the key facts.
For information about the value of tourism at a sub-regional level, our paper “What is Tourism Worth?” summarises ONS analysis of tourism spending, GVA and employment.
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From Page 4 of http://www.visitbritain.org/Images/Final%20proof%2015%20Nov_tcm29-39296.pdf
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From Page 55 of http://www.visitbritain.org/Images/Final%20proof%2015%20Nov_tcm29-39296.pdf
From the Visit England infographic at
