The latest figures from national tourist board VisitBritain revealed growth from every world region, with the high-volume EU15 markets increasing by 5 per cent and visits from other EU markets up a significant 40 per cent. “Not only are we seeing strong growth figures from our established markets, but also from new growth markets, such as China, South Korea and Mexico,” said Patricia Yates, director of strategy and communications at VisitBritain.
“Huge events have showcased Britain on a global stage as a great place to holiday, study, invest and do business – and these figures show that our GREAT campaign has helped turned spectators into visitors.
“As a result, Britain is on course to attain the highest spend from international visitors in its history by the end of the year.”
Britain welcomed 10 per cent more visits in October 2013 than in the same month a year earlier - a total of 2.95 million visits - and an impressive 23 per cent more (in nominal terms) was spent by overseas visitors - a total of £1.88bn.
Return to growth
And it wasn’t just the large volume EU15 markets seeing uplift in October - Rest of Europe saw an increase of 13 per cent and new growth markets across Rest of World markets (outside Europe or North America) continued to break records for the seventh consecutive month, with visits up 9 per cent in October - and up 12 per cent across the first ten months of the year. Tourism from North America also saw a return to growth - 9 per cent higher than last year.
These latest figures have also put holiday visits on track for a record year, marking six consecutive months of record levels of holiday visits, with 9 per cent more holiday visits from overseas in October than the previous October.
So far in 2013 (January to October) there have been 8 per cent more holiday visits than in the same period in 2012 – again, a record number.