This is 300,000 more than its previous forecast in December, but ‘as downside risks continue to heavily outweigh the upside’, VisitBritain warns there is a ‘significant potential’ that inbound visits will decline by as much as 5% to just 30.3m this year.
Provisional figures from the International Passenger Survey – the key monitor of international tourism to the UK – show that Britain’s tourism industry benefited from additional breaks, particularly from eurozone residents, during the Easter period.
Meanwhile, Britons took 16% fewer trips abroad in the first four months of the year, suggesting that compared to other countries Britain has benefited from a weak pound and good exchange rates for foreign tourists.
In the first four months of 2009, overseas residents made 8.9m visits to the UK and spent just over £4.4bn.
Before adjusting for inflation, spending fell 1% compared to January-April 2008, while the number of visits fell 10%.
Sandie Dawe, chief executive of VisitBritain, said: ‘These are stronger figures than we have seen for the start of the year and further evidence that a weak pound has indeed drawn increasing numbers of visitors to Britain.
‘However, sterling is already recovering against key currencies, so we cannot rest on our laurels and, as we enter another summer season, must continue to drive awareness of Britain’s appeal and why they should visit now.’
VisitBritain has several promotional campaigns in Europe and the US to woo overseas visitors and recently took 70 journalists from 30 countries on a tour to see British short break options.
See also:
Visits to UK fall despite weak pound (15/05/2009)
Virgin and VisitBritain unite to woo US tourists (13/05/2009)
Dawe steps up to head VisitBritain (12/05/2009)
UK bookings rise (09/04/2009)
Yates to head up new VisitBritain division (09/10/2008)