hospitalitytoday.com | 5
China moves into UK’s top 10 source markets
Records were set in 2015 for inbound visits with strong
growth from Britain’s major inbound markets including
the US and Europe and double digit growth from newer
markets China and the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
The latest figures from the Office for National Statistics
show very strong growth from China, with visits up 46%
on 2014 to 270,000, and spend up 18% to £586 million,
moving China into the UK’s top 10 most valuable
inbound markets.
Visits from the US, the UK’s most valuable tourism source
market, grew 10% to 3.3 million in 2015. Visitors from the
US spent a record £3 billion.
A record was also set for visits from the high-spending
UAE, up 34% in 2015 to 347,000 with spend up 12% to
£487 million.
The number of visits across the English regions,
excluding London, reached a record for numbers and
spend in 2015 with visits up 7% to 15.2 million, and
spending up 4% to £7.5 billion.
Records were also set for the number of visits to London
- up 7% on 2014 at 18.6 million, the first time the capital
has seen more than 18 million visits, with spending up
1% to a record £11.9 billion.
Visits to Wales grew 4% in 2015 to 970,000, the highest
since 2009, with spending growing an even stronger 12%
to a record £410 million.
While visits to Scotland fell 4% in 2015 to 2.6 million, visit
numbers were still well ahead of 2013 following strong
growth in 2014.