International visitors spent an additional £562m across Britain as a result of VisitBritain/VisitEngland activity in the 2024-2025 financial year.
The agency’s Starring GREAT Britain campaign, which uses screen tourism to promote destinations, generated £217m in additional spending from its January launch to June. The campaign returned £20 for every £1 invested. According to the report, 60% of the spending, £336m, was outside London.
VisitBritain forecasts international visitors will spend £34.6bn in the UK this year, up 6% on 2024. Visits are forecast to reach 44.3m, up 4%.
Nick de Bois, British Tourist Authority chairman, said the UK is losing ground internationally as a destination. He said: “VisitBritain’s analysis shows that if tourism to the UK was growing at the same pace as current forecasts for Western Europe, the industry would be worth an additional £4.4 billion per year by 2030 to the UK economy. But tourism is extremely competitive, and visitors have a lot of choice.”
VisitEngland has been supporting the Local Visitor Economy Partnership programme, which restructures regional tourism management in England. Two Destination Development Partnership pilots have run in the North-East and West Midlands. Domestic overnight trips in England are down 8% year-on-year.
De Bois, commented: “Despite the success of the DDP pilots and the hard work of LVEPs to gain accreditation, I am disappointed that there is still no long-term funding commitment from government. Afterall the structures of tourism have responded and it would be timely now for government to do so too, to secure the future of destination management across England.”
The company presented the figures at its annual review event on 21 October.
