Tourism

Mr. Hunt

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what recent estimate his Department has made of the UK's market share of the international tourism industry in each of the last 10 years. (171676)

[holding answer 5 December 2007]: The most recent available figures for national shares of the world tourism market are for 2006. The UK's percentage markets shares, in terms of both visitor numbers and spending, for the 10 years to 2006 were as follows:

	Inbound visitors to UK(million)	Percentage of world total	Inbound visitor spending in UK(£ million)	Percentage of world total
1997	25.5	3.9	12.2	4.4
1998	25.7	3.9	12.7	4.7
1999	25.3	3.7	12.5	4.4
2000	25.2	3.4	12.8	4.0
2001	22.8	3.1	11.3	3.5
2002	24.2	3.2	11.7	3.7
2003	24.7	3.3	11.9	3.7
2004	25.7	3.4	13.1	3.8
2005	30.0	3.5	14.2	3.8
2006	32.2	3.6	15.4	4.0

Volume 468: debated on Thursday 6 December 2007