BigHospitality has reported recently on improved conditions for the tourism market in the UK, with tourism spend hitting record levels in 2013, and higher numbers of Brits choosing to holiday at home having a significant impact on our economy.
Supporting the trend
The new ONS report supports this trend, with statistics showing that the recent rise in visits and earnings from overseas visitors to the UK has continued, and were seven per cent higher in the February to April period than they were the year before.
Similarly, holiday visits to the UK remain strong and have risen by 18 per cent from January to April this year. With staycations on the rise though, the number of visits abroad made by Brits has actually fallen by a percentage in the period February to April 2014 as compared with the same months in 2013.
Barclays commented on the new statistics, with its head of Hospitality and Leisure Mike Saul saying: “These positive figures bear out the growing optimism currently being reported by the travel and tourism industry. Destination UK continues to be a major draw and with recent Barclays research forecasting overseas tourist spend in the UK growing by 34 per cent to £27bn by 2017, this trend is set to go from strength to strength.
“Similarly, UK travellers are booking more holidays year on year and operators are seeing a growing trend in forward bookings, with many trips being booked as far as 12 months in advance. With industry leaders signalling increased marketing spend this year at the expense of more aggressive pricing, low levels of discretionary spend would appear to becoming less of a problem for the industry than they were this time last year.”