More international tourists visit English regions than ever before

Visit Britain has released statistics suggesting in the first nine months of 2017 there were a record 12.7m visits to English regions outside London, up 4% compared to the same period in 2016.

International visitors are reported to have spent £6.1bn across England’s regions over the period from January to September, during which there were 909,000 overseas visits to Wales, up 6% compared with the same time in 2016,. These visitors spent £337m.

In Scotland, overseas visits increased 14% to 2.6m in the first nine months of 2017 compared with 2016, with overseas visitors spending £1.8bn.

Tourism minister Michael Ellis said: “It is fantastic news that towns and cities across the UK are benefitting from the boom in tourism, and as the new Tourism Minister I want to ensure that this trend continues.

“Promoting the UK as a must-visit destination to the rest of the world is paramount in ensuring that local areas can reap the benefits of tourism and I am committed to working with the sector to drive economic growth across the UK.”

VisitBritain director Patricia Yates added: “Boosting inbound tourism throughout Britain is at the heart of our work, so it is very encouraging to see the growth across our nations and regions. Tourism is one of our most valuable export industries and we are forecasting that growth will continue in 2018, with 41.7 million overseas visits to the UK and visitors spending almost £27 billion.”

Of the English regions, the North West and the West Midlands had the largest growth in overseas visits, both up 10% when compared with September 2016, to 2.4 million and 1.8m respectively.

VisitBritain says growth from inbound tourism is set to continue in 2018 with 41.7m overseas visits to the UK, up 4.4% on 2017.

Spending by overseas visitors is predicted to reach £26.9bn in 2018, up 6.8% on 2017.