VisitBritain: Double-digit growth in inbound tourism in UK, 39.2 million visits in 2017

Tuesday, July 24, 2018

Britain’s tourism industry is booming  and The Office of National Statistics released in the final International Passenger Survey(IPS) results covering 2017 that it was a phenomenal year of inbound tourism. UK saw significant growth in visits and spending from important markets while the new data from the VisitBritain revealed the double-digit growth in inbound tourism.

The visitors were mostly from China,  the Gulf Cooperation (GCC), India and the U.S.

Michael Ellis said that 2017  was another record-breaker, they welcomed more people than ever from important markets and they were working hard to sustain this excellent growth . They further want to encourage international visitors to travel around the UK and make sure that their communities can benefit.

There was a record 337,000 visits and its GBP saw an increase of 35% with 694 million.The figures in other parts of the US grew 13% to 3.9 million in 2017 which was the highest since 2000 and the US visitors spending GBP 3.6 billion.

The Indian visitors were 562,000 which was 35% up along with a record GBP of 454m. A record 812,000 inbound visits from the GCC in 2017 was high by 5%  and a record GBP 2.2 bn showing a rise in spending by 55%.

Visitors from EU were 25.6 million and visitors spending GBP 10 bn. There was 39.2million inbound visits in 2017 to the UK with visitors spending GBP 24.5 bn.

Patricia Yates, director of VisitBritain mentioned that tourism is one of Britain’s most valuable export industries. Strong growth across many of their high-value markets shows their ability to attract international visitors in a  competitive global industry.

They can deliver economic growth right across the country and this growth reveals how Britain is an outward-facing nation engaging people from across the world.

Annual tourism is worth GBP 127 bn contributed to the UK economy.

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