English Tourism Week, the annual celebration of England’s tourism industry, takes place from 14 - 23 March 2025. English Tourism Week brings the industry together to highlight tourism’s importance to local communities and economies and promote the innovation, quality and range of products and services on offer to boost domestic breaks.
Co-ordinated by VisitEngland, this year’s campaign is ‘Supporting people and places to drive growth’ to celebrate the people, places, businesses, attractions, experiences and destinations at the heart of England’s tourism sector.
Image: English Tourism Week 2025 - The Roman Baths, Bath
During this year’s English Tourism Week, Visit West will host its Annual Regional Visitor Economy Conference, bringing 240 people from the local industry together to hear from high profile speakers presenting national and global insights, new developments, and ways for businesses to maximise the benefits of film and tv tourism, as well as brief review of 2024 and looking ahead to the future.
The region will also be represented at the British Tourism and Travel Show at NEC Birmingham, a large trade exhibition for domestic groups where stand sharers will meet with group organisers and encourage more visits to their businesses, as well as the region as a whole.
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Image: Englihs Tourism Week 2025 - Bristol Harbourside
One of Visit West’s key strategies is to encourage people to stay longer in the region, maximising their stay by exploring what the West of England has to offer, with visitor spend supporting high streets and small businesses in particular.
The tourism organisation’s research for 2023 outlines the biggest beneficiaries of all visitor spend (day visitors, and domestic and international staying visitors) are the retail sector (estimated £767m), food and drink businesses (£729m),accommodation (£334m) and culture and entertainment at £231 million. For many businesses, this visitor spend is a critical part of their income, without which they would struggle to survive.
Image: English Tourism Week 2025 - Cheddar Gorge
Inbound international visits have seen a particular rise, as visits to the region grew by 21% to 957,000 in 2023, just 14% behind the pre-pandemic record high in 2019. Bristol is the 7th most visited destination by inbound visitors, and Bath came 11th (joint with Cardiff) as combined staying visits to the region have increased in total by 2%, with spend increasing by 7%. While the number of international day visitors is currently not tracked, it is known to have a significant impact in the region.
Image: English Tourism Week 2025 - Bristol Zoo Project
Visit West’s Managing Director Kathryn Davis says: “English Tourism Week is a way to celebrate the incredible businesses and people who work tirelessly to provide a welcome and experience that celebrates the best of the region. With an estimated direct value of £2.5 billion, this is a vital part of the local economy providing skilled jobs and careers, and entrepreneurial opportunities for more than 45,000 local residents.
“We have an incredible region that welcomes global visitors that invest in our high streets, and support our cultural and heritage sector. Operating conditions for businesses remain challenging and we will continue to lobby for those working in the visitor economy, and continue to develop strong routes to market through our work with the travel trade, meeting and event organisers and through our consumer channels Visit Bath and Visit Bristol.
“We are looking forward to a strong 2025 with demand from Austen 250, Women’s Rugby World Cup and VisitBritain’s national campaign Starring Great Britain celebrating film and TV locations, and are already planning for 2026 and beyond to ensure we remain competitive."
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