High spending visitors in the UK
The vast majority of the 37.6 million visits by overseas residents that the UK welcomed during 2016 will have been by those on ‘average’ incomes, but it is interesting to examine which source markets generate the highest spend per visit and the highest spend per night.
It makes sense to look at both these metrics as some markets may display a high spend per visit but this is thanks to an above average length of stay or an atypical journey purpose distribution.
Table 1 below covers the top seven markets in terms of spend per visit during 2016 while Table 2 deals with spend per night high fliers.
Both tables feature several Gulf countries, with Bahrain holding second spot in both the country spending the most on average per visit (£2,354) and also per night (£172). This is well above the average for 2016 of £599 per visit and £81 per night. Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Egypt feature in both lists, in the case of the first two due to their high standard of living, especially amongst international travellers. China and Nigeria both have high average spend per visit, but not per night and this is due to a high average nights per visit in both cases. For China the average number of nights per visit is 20, well above the average of 7.4, and for Nigeria it is 23, which in both cases inflates the overall spend per visit..
| Market | Spend per visit (2016) |
|---|---|
| Saudi Arabia | £2,370 |
| Bahrain | £2,354 |
| Egypt | £2,144 |
| Qatar | £1,992 |
| Kuwait | £1,984 |
| China | £1,972 |
| Nigeria | £1,951 |
| Market | Spend per night (2016) |
|---|---|
| Egypt | £180 |
| Bahrain | £172 |
| Chile | £164 |
| United Arab Emirates | £159 |
| Switzerland | £158 |
| Kuwait | £155 |
| Saudi Arabia | £146 |
Only countries with a base size larger than 100 have been included
