Latest inbound tourism figures released today for the three months to September 2004 show the best ever recorded July to September period in terms of visits…
Latest inbound tourism figures released today for the three months to September 2004 show the best ever recorded July to September period in terms of visits, VisitBritain said today.
The latest figures echo reports from the World Tourism Organisation (WTO), which show that the UK is significantly outperforming other Western and Northern European countries in terms of the growth in the number of visitors.
VisitBritain, the authority for tourism in Britain, said the new statistics showed that growth in visitors came from throughout the world – with visits from North America up by 9 per cent, Western Europe by 10 per cent and the Rest of the World by 10 per cent compared with the same three-month period in 2003.
2004 has so far been a bumper year for international visitors. The first nine months of 2004 have been the highest recorded since records began. Total visits are up 12 per cent on the same period of 2003, with 20.8 million visitors coming to the UK. VisitBritain is predicting that a record 26.3 million visitors will have visited our shores by the end of the year – a record high.
According the WTO, the other major tourist centres throughout Europe have reported much slower growth than Britain:- Italy (-0.1% to July), France (+0.1 (overnight stays) to September), Spain (+2% to September) or Portugal (-3% (overnight stays) to August).
Expenditure by visitors to the UK has also risen by 3 per cent between July and September, although it slipped slightly by 3 per cent in September. The weakness of the dollar against sterling is likely to be discouraging visitors from North America from spending large sums of money when coming to Britain.
Tom Wright, Chief Executive of VisitBritain, commented:
“The latest statistics on inbound international visitors confirm recent reports that Britain is outperforming its European competitors in terms of the growth in the number of trips.
“This is excellent news for Britain’s tourism industry and shows that our world wide reputation as a high quality tourist destination continues to grow.
“Our forecast for 2004 suggests that the UK will have the best-ever recorded year in terms of the number of visitors. Our strategies for the next year will continue to focus on increasing expenditure when they travel to Britain.”
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Theodore is the Co-Founder and Managing Editor of TravelDailyNews Media Network; his responsibilities include business development and planning for TravelDailyNews long-term opportunities. 17/05/2024
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