24
| Hospitality Today | Oct / Nov 2016
The hospitality market : figures and analysis
Highest August ever for overseas visits to UK
New figures show that August was a record-breaking month for inbound tourism to the UK with 3.8 million visits , up 2 % on last August .
Overseas visitors to the UK spent £ 2.6 billion in August , 4 % up on the same month last year . Inbound tourism alone is worth more than £ 26 billion a year to the UK economy , and tourism overall is worth £ 127 billion .
August saw strong growth from North America with 510,000 visits , up 13 % compared to the same month last year .
The Office for National Statistics figures also show a record-breaking first eight months of the year for visits from EU countries , with 16.8 million visits , 3 % up on last year .
The latest figures bring inbound visits from January to August to 25 million , up 3 % on the same period last year and a record . Spending by visitors during this period was £ 14.6 billion .
Tourism Minister Tracey Crouch ( below ) said : “ 2016 has been an incredible year for British tourism and underlined our status as one of the top visitor destinations in the world .
“ We continue to attract a record number of tourists from across the globe , which is not only great news for the sector , but the whole economy .
“ We are absolutely committed to supporting the industry , and our Tourism Action Plan and £ 40 million Discover England Fund will help it grow further and spread the economic benefits across the country .”
A year of record growth for tourism
International visitors spent an extra £ 800 million across the nations and regions of Britain in the last year as a result of work by the national tourism agency VisitBritain , the latest figures show .
VisitBritain claimed that this showed every £ 1 invested in VisitBritain ’ s activities resulted in an overseas visitor spending £ 23 in Britain .