80+ UK Tourism Statistics [2023 update]

Steeped in historical past, tradition, and pure magnificence, the UK (UK) gives a various vary of experiences for vacationers. Nevertheless, the UK’s journey and tourism sector confronted vital challenges starting in 2020 because the coronavirus pandemic swept throughout the globe.

Regardless of the influence of the pandemic and international journey restrictions, the UK’s journey sector is bouncing again with pressure. In line with the most recent UK journey and tourism statistics, the sector contributes a large 4.11 million jobs to the UK’s workforce and just below 10% to the UK’s whole GDP. 

Plus, as forecasts level to a exceptional 3.8% enlargement and a valuation of £257 billion by 2025, it’s clear that tourism is ready to grow to be one in every of Nice Britain’s fastest-growing sectors.

On this information, we discover the highest tourism statistics, shedding mild on worldwide and home journey tendencies, in addition to tourism statistics associated to sports activities, journey, enterprise, and far rather more. 

Reviving inbound tourism: The UK’s journey to restoration

• The newest inbound tourism forecast for 2023 anticipates 37.5 million visits, a formidable 92% restoration in comparison with the pre-pandemic degree in 2019. 

• In 2023, inbound guests are projected to spend £30.9 billion, surpassing the 2019 degree by 109% in nominal phrases.

• Journey and tourism’s whole contribution to the UK’s GDP in 2017 was 5.3%. By 2028, journey and tourism’s contribution to the UK’s GDP is predicted to lower considerably to solely 2%.

• Abroad residents made 31.2 million visits to the UK in 2022.

• By 2024 and 2025, each home and worldwide tourism within the UK is projected to bounce again to pre-pandemic ranges.

• Ranked the sixth largest on the planet, the UK tourism trade generates £155.4 billion in income for the UK financial system yearly.

• In 2022, London remained probably the most visited metropolis by worldwide guests with simply over 16 million worldwide visits. Nevertheless, this determine was roughly 26% decrease than the pre-pandemic ranges in 2019.

• Edinburgh and Manchester welcomed a substantial variety of vacationers in 2022 — 1.8 million and 1.2 million respectively — making them the second and third hottest locations.

• In 2022, america topped the checklist because the main inbound journey marketplace for the UK based mostly on the variety of visits, with roughly 4.6 million inbound journeys from American vacationers. 

• Following carefully have been vacationer arrivals from France, the Republic of Eire, and Germany.

• In 2019, People spent a file £4.18bn whereas visiting the UK. 

• In 2022, abroad guests to the UK loved a median keep of 8.4 nights, in comparison with simply over 7 nights in 2019.

• The Nationwide Historical past Museum, Brighton Pier, and the British Museum topped the checklist of the preferred free sights in England in 2022.

• The Tower of London, the Royal Botanic Gardens, and the RHS Backyard Wisley topped the checklist of the preferred paid sights in England in 2022.

• The Windsor Nice Park was probably the most visited vacationer attraction all through the UK in 2022, attracting 5.6 million guests. 

Sources: Statista, McKinsey, VisitBritain, The Workplace for Nationwide Statistics (ONS), Affiliation of Main Customer Sights, The Worldwide Passenger Survey (IPS)

A surge in journey staycations: UK home tourism statistics

• Between April and December 2021, Brits loved almost 45 million in a single day stays throughout the UK.

• In 2021, home vacationers within the UK spent £98.7 billion on journeys across the UK.

• In 2019, British vacationers launched into nearly 123 million home holidays.

• The variety of outbound worldwide journey journeys in 2019 amounted to 93 million.

• Brits took a median of two.3 home holidays between September 2021 and August 2022. 

• 20% of Brits say that the South West of the UK is their prime vacation spot for in a single day home journeys throughout summer season.

• With staycations on the rise, Brits spent a median of virtually £770 on UK getaways in 2021.

• All through 2022, British residents made 1.1 billion day journeys to locations throughout the UK, spending £45 billion on these journeys alone. 

Sources: Tourism Alliance, Statista, IBIS World, UNWTO

Journey tourism statistics: Guests to the UK have caught the journey bug

• The UNWTO studies that the UK boasts Europe’s largest journey tourism market, accounting for 19% of the world’s journey journey vacationers.

• By 2024, the journey tourism trade income is projected to achieve £3.8 billion.

• From 2011 to 2019, spending on journey and water sports activities within the UK elevated from £1.5 billion to £1.8 billion.

• The variety of individuals participating in journey and water sports activities actions within the UK has additionally elevated from 57 million in 2011 to 100 million in 2019.

• In 2021, UK spending on tenting journeys rose to £2.7 billion.

• In 2019, outdoor-related actions in city settings accounted for over 60% of all nature-based spending.

• 59% of European millennials have had at the least one form of journey expertise. 

Sources: ONS, Condor Ferries, CBI, Enterprise Gateway

Healthcare tourism statistics past borders: Medical tourism within the UK is on the rise

• The UK medical tourism market is predicted to achieve a valuation of over £17 billion by 2032.

• The worldwide medical tourism market is projected to be value $35.9 billion by 2032.

• In 2020, the UK ranked fifth within the international vacation spot atmosphere rating for medical tourism.

• In 2021, a complete of 34,000 inbound visits to the UK have been for medical remedy.

• Of the 34,000 medical vacationers in 2021, 62% have been from international locations within the EU-15, and fewer than 3% have been from North America. 

• Vacationer spending on medical remedy within the UK is between £178 million to £325 million yearly. 

• Inbound medical vacationers and their companions contribute roughly £219 million to the UK financial system by extra tourism expenditures yearly. 

• Dental care, beauty surgical procedure, fertility remedies, organ and tissue transplantation, and most cancers remedy prime the checklist of fashionable procedures for medical tourism journeys.

Sources: Statista, Future Market Insights, Nationwide Library of Drugs, CDC, Market.US

• In 2022, 76.2 million individuals attended skilled sporting occasions all through the UK.

• In line with the most recent figures, inbound tourism expenditure on sport and recreation reached a formidable £231 million within the UK.

• In 2019, round 1.5 million inbound guests attended a reside soccer match, accounting for about 1 in each 27 guests.

• Soccer is the primary sporting attraction for worldwide vacationers visiting the UK, with over 800,000 guests yearly attending a soccer match.

• Cricket is the second largest sporting draw with 225,000 annual guests. 

• Since 2010, the worth of sport to the UK financial system has elevated by 40%.

• In 2019, inbound soccer vacationers spent a median of £909 per go to, 31% increased than the common customer spend of £696 by different inbound vacationers.

• In 2019, the Previous Trafford Stadium in Manchester and the Anfield Stadium in Liverpool had the best attendance at 440,000 vacationer visits. 

• The quantity spent on {golfing} actions within the UK grew by 40% between 2011 and 2019, from £800 million to £1.1 billion 

Sources: ONS, VisitBritain, Gov.uk, Statista

Enterprise tourism statistics: Conferences, incentive journeys, and exhibitions gas the enterprise tourism growth within the UK

• In 2022, there have been 5.1 million visits to the UK for enterprise causes.

• Enterprise contributed £5.8 billion in spend in 2019, representing an unbelievable 20% of all inbound spend.

• Enterprise vacationers are inclined to make flying visits to the UK. In 2019, nearly two-thirds of all enterprise visits to the UK lasted between 1 and three nights.

• In contrast to typical tourism flows, enterprise visits to the UK do not present a lot seasonality, which implies there is a regular variety of guests year-round.

• In 2019, conferences, conventions, and congresses took the lead among the many MICE sub-categories, accounting for 742,000 visits and a whopping whole spend of £716 million.

• Massive conferences consisting of over 21 individuals in 2019 accounted for about 7% of all enterprise visits (646,000 visits in whole), and these vacationers spent £573 million.

• In 2019, incentive and team-building journeys made 67,000 visits and spent £69 million, making them one of many top-spending enterprise teams with an expenditure of £1,039 per go to.

• In 2019, attendees of exhibitions, occasions, and commerce exhibits spent a complete of £319 million throughout 319,000 visits.

• In 2021, UK residents made an estimated whole of 8.3 million enterprise journeys.

• Two-thirds of UK companies plan to spice up enterprise journey spend by 50% or extra in 2023. 

• The Journey and Tourism Improvement Index ranked the UK because the fifth-best nation for non-leisure journey worldwide in 2021, and the first-best nation in Europe.

• Enterprise vacationers flocked to London in 2019, with a exceptional 3.98 million visits from overseas, solidifying its place as the highest enterprise journey vacation spot within the UK.

• As of 2023, London is the third costliest enterprise journey location in Europe.

• Ranked because the eighth costliest metropolis on the planet for enterprise journey, a visit to London prices round £497 per day go to.

• The typical spend per home enterprise journey in 2019 was £280. 

Sources: ONS, VisitBritain, Statista, American Categorical, ECA Worldwide, Stratos

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Rural tourism statistics: The allure of rural tourism and sustainable journey is on the rise

• A testomony to its magnificence, UK nature contributed a exceptional £12 billion to tourism and out of doors leisure in 2019.

• In 2021, the Gross Worth Added (GVA) from tourism in Predominantly Rural areas was value a formidable £11.5 billion. 

• Throughout 2019/20, rural areas boasted 66,800 registered tourist-related companies, making up 11% of the full registered companies in these areas.

• Tourism-related industries play a extra substantial position in rural employment, representing 15% of the full workforce, in comparison with 11% in city areas.

• Nearly all of UK vacationers (71%) and US vacationers (69%) say that sustainable journey practices are essential to them and attempt to make extra eco-conscious journeys. 

• In a bid to boost rural tourism, Scotland allotted £3 million in 2022 to help 10 infrastructure tasks, specializing in customer services, entry enhancements, and selling eco-friendly transport choices.

• An estimated 34% of holidays in Wales contain tenting or caravanning, in comparison with 20% in England and 21% in Scotland. 

Sources: ONS, Gov.uk, Savills, Reserving.com, Highland.gov.uk, Pitchup

Music tourism is hitting excessive notes within the UK

• In 2022, the worldwide music tourism market worth was valued at $5.5 billion and is on observe to rock ‘n’ roll all the best way as much as an unbelievable $11.3 billion by 2032. 

• The thriving music tourism sector sustained a complete of 56,000 jobs throughout the UK in 2022, massively contributing to total tourism employment statistics within the nation. 

• In 2022, the UK’s music scene drew in a formidable 1.1 million international music vacationers and 13.3 million home music vacationers.

• 2022 marked a crescendo in music tourism spending within the UK, peaking at a formidable £6.6 billion — surpassing the pre-pandemic whole in 2019 of £4.7 billion. 

• Attracting a staggering 4.9 million music vacationers, London is a significant magnet for music lovers.

• Due to the draw of legendary teams The Beatles, The Stone Roses, and Oasis, the North West area is shut behind with 1.9 million music vacationers.

• 10% of British individuals would journey eight hours by aircraft to see their favourite artists.

• 63% of Brits have been on journeys that mixed journey with a gig or competition.

• New York and Barcelona are the highest dream journey locations for British music lovers. 

Sources: Future Market Insights, UK Music, Statista, UK Music Report, NME