Britain Sees Record Tourism Growth, with More on the Way

Photo: VisitBritain staged its annual ExploreGB travel trade event in Liverpool last week.

Britain continues to see tourism gains across the board, including significant increases in visitor numbers from the U.S. market, according to the latest numbers released last week in Liverpool at ExploreGB, VisitBritain’s annual travel trade event. Better yet, more of those visitors are venturing out far beyond London as the national tourism organization continues its push to promote other British regions and cities.

Britain recorded another record year for tourism in 2015, the sixth consecutive year of growth, with visitors up 4% to 35.8 million. Over the past five years there were six million more visits in 2015 than 2010, an increase of 20%; visitors from the United States were up 8%, to 3.9 million, in 2015.

Visitors spent £21.8 billion in Britain last year, which is in line with 2014’s record-breaking figure. Spending by overseas visitors is predicted to reach almost £23 billion in 2016.

Britain is forecasting another record year for 2016, with a projected 36.7 million visitors, and VisitBritain officials say that puts the destination on track to grow to 42 million visitors by 2020.

VisitBritain attributes the rosy results, in part, to its international marketing campaigns. They have been promoting the nations and regions of Britain with a 2015 global “Countryside is GREAT” campaign designed to boost visits to more locations across the country by highlighting the countryside and rural landscape.

VisitBritain last month also launched its new international marketing campaign for 2016, which promotes memorable moments visitors can only experience on a trip to Britain. Running across four markets—Brazil, France, Germany, and the United States—the Great Britain “Home of Amazing Moments” campaign focuses on the experiences, culture, and countryside across Britain’s nations and regions. The digital campaign is using the hashtag #omgb.