Hansard

Tourism

Volume 456: debated on Monday 29 January 2007

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Anne Milton

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what assessment her Department has made of the regional breakdown of spending by overseas visitors to the UK; and if she will make a statement. (111702)

Mr. Woodward

The following table shows the regional breakdown of spending by overseas visitors to the UK in 2005.

Region

Spending (£ million)

London

6,859

North East

206

North West

883

Yorkshire

387

West Midlands

533

East Midlands

365

East of England

709

South West

868

South East

1,470

Total England1

12,302

Scotland

1,208

Wales

311

Northern Ireland

131

Total UK1

14,122

1 Totals may include elements of expenditure that are not attributable to a particular region.

Source:

International Passenger Survey (ONS)

Anne Milton

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport how many trips to the UK were made by tourists from overseas in each year since 1997; and if she will make a statement. (111704)

Mr. Woodward

The following table shows the number of visits to the UK by overseas residents since 1997.

Total visits (Thousand)

1997

25,515

1998

25,745

1999

25,394

2000

25,209

2001

22,835

2002

24,180

2003

24,715

2004

27,755

2005

29,970

Source:

International Passenger Survey (ONS)

Anne Milton

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport (1) what steps her Department is taking to promote the UK internationally as a tourist destination; and if she will make a statement; (111705)

(2) what steps her Department is taking to promote domestic tourism within the UK; and if she will make a statement.

Mr. Woodward

The Department funds VisitBritain to market England to the British and Britain to the rest of the world. VisitBritain received £50 million in grant-in-aid for 2006-07 of which £13.4 million has been allocated for the purpose of domestic marketing. (VisitBritain's marketing activities include the EnglandNet project, which provides comprehensive information for both domestic and overseas visitors, with facilities for live booking of accommodation and other services.)

The Department works closely with regional and local government, supporting and promoting both domestic and international tourism. It currently contributes £3.6 million a year to the regional development agencies to support tourism in the regions, and £1.9 million a year to the Greater London Authority to support the Mayor's statutory tourism duties.

Mr. Bone

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what recent assessment she has made of likely trends in levels of inbound tourism over the next three years. (111736)

Mr. Woodward

Visit Britain publishes forecasts for the volume and value of inbound tourism for the year ahead. These forecasts are approved by DCMS.

Forecasts released in November 2006 estimated that the volume and value of inbound tourism will grow by around 4 per cent. during 2007, with 32.5 million visitors expected to spend £15.8 billion. This is an aggregate forecast regardless of purpose of visit.

Full detail of the Visit Britain forecasts can be found at:

http://www.tourismtrade.org.uk/MarketIntelligenceResearch/TrendsForecasts.asp

I am arranging for details of VisitBritain Inbound Forecasts for 2007 to be placed in the House Libraries.

Due to the large number of factors that can influence the volume and value of inbound tourism over the longer term, no specific UK forecasts have yet been calculated for 2008 and 2009. However, we could expect to see growth of 3 per cent. per annum in line with the UN World Tourism Organisation forecasts for the whole of Europe.