This week, Visit West has been represented at a couple of VisitBritain/Visit England events that have provided significant platforms to raise the profile of their work in the visitor economy and the impact of their LVEP programme, as well as an opportunity for Visit West to be highly visible in the process.
On Wednesday, VisitBritain/VisitEngland's Annual Review was launched at Frameless in London by Nick De Bois, Chairman of the British Tourism Authority. At the event, it was announced that visitors spent an additional £1.26 billion across Britain as a result of activity by the national tourism agency, meaning that for every pound invested in the agency, visitors spent an additional £15 in Britain.
It comes as VisitBritain’s latest inbound tourism forecast estimates £32.5 billion will be spent by international visitors in the UK this year, up 5% on 2023, and up 14% on 2019. Looking at visits to the UK, 38.7 million visits are forecast, up 2% on the 38.0 million seen in 2023, however still 5% shy of 2019 levels.
Estimates show that during 2023, international visits to the West of England numbered more than 882,000, 85% of the 2019 peak.
Image: Visit West Managing Director Kathryn Davis and Wera Hobhouse, Member of Parliament for Bath, at the special event in Parliament
VisitBritain also confirmed that they would be using the powerful pull of screen tourism and the booming set-jetting trend to boost inbound tourism. At Visit West, we are working hard to ensure that the productions filmed in the area are being shared with the VisitBritain teams, to ensure that the region is well represented and have already followed up a question on the day with further correspondence about how to best make this happen.
Following the launch, it was a dash across Central London to Parliament for a special event bringing together MPs with their LVEPs, and to learn more about the value of the visitor economy to their constituencies.
Visit West were delighted to be joined by Wera Hobhouse, the current MP for Bath and her staff to celebrate the city in front of a beautiful view of Pulteney Bridge.
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