Foreign tourists spend record £17.7bn at UK tourist attractions

By Travelmail Reporter
Updated: 07:12 EDT, 10 February 2012

Britain's place as a world-class destination has been cemented with the news that foreign visitors spent a record £17.7bn last year - an average of £580 per trip.

Tourism organisation VisitBritain said the number of tourists coming to the UK for holiday purposes - as opposed to those on business trips or visiting friends or relatives - was also a record, at just under 12 million.

In total, overseas residents made 30.61 million visits to the UK in 2011, a rise of three per cent on last year and the highest level since 2008.

Draw: Windsor Castle in Berkshire attracts tourists from around the world each year thanks to centuries of history

The growth in holiday arrivals across the year was particularly strong in the first three-quarters of 2011 from countries that included Australia, the U.S., Italy, Holland and Brazil.

Last year, 3.57 million visits were by North American residents - a five per cent increase on the figure for 2010.

In comparison, UK residents made 56.05 million visits overseas in 2011 - an increase of just one per cent - and the amount they spent during those trips dipped two per cent on the previous year to £31.07 billion.

Meanwhile, visits to Europe rose but those to North America dipped three per cent.

Spectacular: London tourist spots like Tower Bridge have become iconic representations of Britain around the world

VisitBritain strategy and communications director Patricia Yates said: 'As we look back on a positive 2011 for both holiday visits and spending, we want to make sure we capitalise on these gains by helping boost jobs across the country and create a lasting tourism legacy for many years to come.

'We are encouraged that...the number of visitors coming to Britain from North America has risen. This is significant as we earn very nearly twice as much from US visitors than we do from any other source market.'

The news came as VisitBritain's biggest advertising campaign yet was launched in London by Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt.

Its aim is to attract an extra 4.6 million visitors to the UK over the next four years, securing an additional £2.3 billion in visitor spending.

Starting in New York next Monday, the campaign will see the inside and outside of a New York subway train wrapped in the GREAT branding, and adverts blitzed across the city's key transit hubs, including Grand Central station.

The campaign will target nine countries worldwide, with adverts appearing in 14 key cities around the world, including Beijing, Los Angeles, Sydney, Rio de Janeiro and Tokyo.

Mr Hunt said: 'We are taking the fight for the tourist pound right to our competitors' doorsteps, with a sales assault on the 14 biggest and most lucrative tourism markets around the world.

'Right across the world, there will be no escape from the message that Britain is great.'