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Mar 7, 2006
Announcing a new record in
international visitor figures for the full year 2005, VisitBritain, the
national tourism agency reported that almost 30 million international visitors
in the UK
spent over £14 billion during 2005.
Provisional data from the
Office for National Statistics for January to December 2005 indicates that
overseas residents made 29.95 million visits to the UK – an 8% increase on 2004
– and spent £14.3 billion (up 9%). The increase is in large part due to double
digit growth from the Rest of World region, from where visits rose 18% to 6.4
million.
While the amount of time
international visitors spend on a visit in the UK has remained constant over
the past five years at eight days on average, VisitBritain noted that the
amount of money they spend has steadily fallen by 7.3% (to £466) since a high
of £503 in 2000.
Tom Wright, VisitBritain
chief executive, says: “This is certainly a strong result for Britain’s £74 billion visitor
economy and another step forward in achieving our target of raising its value
towards £100 billion. While many businesses faced a difficult summer, there are
clear signs of recovery with a record 12.1 million customers spending over £375
million in London’s theatre-land last year – a third of them from overseas.”
Wright admitted that UK is facing
a challenge in encouraging visitors to stay longer and spend more while they
are in the country. “In the face of an increasingly competitive global tourism
environment, we must continue to explore ever-more creative means of attracting
international visitors to Britain,”
he added.
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