Recovery in foreign visitor numbers is ‘’encouraging’’, says VisitBritain

10th September 2010, 7:10am

New figures showing a significant recovery in travellers coming to the UK is ‘’encouraging’’ though major challenges remain, VisitBritain chief executive Sandie Dawe said today.

She spoke after latest figures issued by the Office for National Statistics showed that in July 2010, the number of overseas residents coming to Britain was 5% higher compared with July 2009. The value of what they spent was 2% higher.

Holiday visits remained steady over the past the year as a whole, but data for the three months to July shows an increase of 8%. Visits to friends and relatives continue to be affected significantly, down 7% compared to the corresponding period of 2009.

Encouragingly, after steep declines a year earlier, business visits have increased 3% so far this year, although they remain at significantly lower levels than before the economic downturn hit.

Sandie said: "These new figures confirm that international tourism to Britain is continuing to recover. Although major challenges remain, and there is some way to go before we reach the record numbers of visits seen back in 2007, it is particularly encouraging to see that inbound holiday tourism began to grow again in the past three months.

"The highly attractive exchange rate for sterling is a key factor behind this trend because it is making the UK very affordable for European and US travellers, a fact that VisitBritain is making a great deal of in its promotions overseas.

"It has now become well established that the value of spending by foreign visitors is growing at a faster rate than the volume of visitors, because the good rate tourists are getting is enabling them to spend more when they get here,'' Sandie said.

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