More than 80 per cent of the tourism industry feel ‘confident’ that the staycation will continue to be popular this summer.
VisitEngland’s Business Confidence Monitor, which surveyed 506 operators, found that a third of hotels and B&Bs saw an increase in visitors during April and May on the same period last year.
The report also found that despite the number of advance bookings for the summer holidays being down on 2009, over 40 per cent of businesses have reported more last minute bookings than the same period last year.
James Berresford, chief executive at VisitEngland, said he was delighted to see the industry ‘full of confidence’ for the summer.
“We’ve spoken a lot recently about the growing trend to holiday at home and this study provides further evidence to support this,” he said. “One in three businesses have increased repeat visitors levels compared to last year, and over a quarter of businesses are reporting more domestic visitors - proving England’s growing popularity with British holidaymakers.”
Inbound tourism
UK tourism from inbound visitors is also expected to increase to 30.4m, a rise of 0.8 per cent on last year, as a continuing result of the weak pound. Earlier this year it was also estimated that visitor spend would rise by 4 per cent as Britain offers tourists ‘exceptional value’.