Luxury Travel
In 2018 there are 18 million High Net Worth Individuals (HNWI) worldwide* and they are of growing interest to international tourism destinations as their appetite for luxury travel translates into increased visitor spend and, thereby, economic growth. (*Source: Capgemini 2019 World Wealth report)
From 22 May we will be working to update all of the data and documents on this page following the Office of National Statistics (ONS) revision of the International Passenger Survey (IPS) data for 2009-2018 and the released detailed 2019 data. Please be patient as we update these pages or contact the VisitBritain research team if you have any questions- VB/VEResearch@visitbritain.org. Thank you.
High spending visitors in the UK
The vast majority of the 40.9 million visits by overseas residents that the UK welcomed during 2019 will have been by non-HWI travellers, 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 ten markets in terms of average spend per visit during 2017-2019 while Table 2 deals with spend per night high-fliers. Both tables feature several Gulf countries, with Saudi Arabia holding first spot in both the country spending the most on average per visit (£3,532) and also per night (£212). This is well above the average for 2017-2019 of £682 per visit and £93 per night. Qatar holds the second spot for spend per visit (£2,800) and also features in the top 10 list for spend per night (£175).
Kuwait ranks 3rd in both top 10 lists, due to their high standard of living, especially amongst international travellers. Oman and China both have high average spend per visit, but do not feature on the list for highest spend per night and this is due to a high average nights per visit in both cases, driven in part by non-holiday visitors. For Oman the average number of nights per visit is 18, whilst China has an average of 17. This is well above the average of 7, which inflates the overall spend per visit. Iceland features on the average spend per night (£186) but only stay on average 4 nights per visit so average spend per visit (£672) is lower than the markets in Table 1.
| Market | Spend per visit (2017-2019) |
|---|---|
| Saudi Arabia | £3,532 |
| Qatar | £2,800 |
| Kuwait | £2,697 |
| Bahrain | £2,465 |
| China | £1,933 |
| United Arab Emirates | £1,730 |
| Oman | £1,697 |
| Nigeria | £1,561 |
| Egypt | £1,502 |
| Thailand | £1,483 |
| Market | Spend per night (2017-2019) |
|---|---|
| Saudi Arabia | £212 |
| Bahrain | £201 |
| Kuwait | £193 |
| Iceland | £186 |
| United Arab Emirates | £177 |
| Qatar | £175 |
| Egypt | £161 |
| Singapore | £157 |
| Indonesia | £141 |
| Japan | £138 |
Spotlight on shopping
Shopping is an important element of luxury travel
- Read more about the types of items that inbound visitors to Britain purchased during 2013 (PDF, 2.33MB), including 'clothes and shoes' and 'toys and games'. Published July 2014
- Our shopping section has more information and insights.
Further resources
VisitBritain and TEAM Tourism Consulting identified four destinations - California, Iceland, Mexico and New Zealand - to serve as best-in-class examples for VisitBritain to further develop the UK's luxury offer. Read our report about those four case studies for more insights into best practices to develop and market a luxury destination (PDF, 1.3MB). Published July 2018
Find out more about luxury travellers from the USA, China and the GCC, how they define a luxury trip, how they plan their holidays and what their opinion of Britain is (PDF, 2.6MB). Published March 2018
