Competing for visitors from China and encouraging them to explore more of Britain are top of the agenda as VisitBritain CEO Patricia Yates joins the Prime Minister’s delegation to Shanghai and Beijing this week.
Tourism’s importance in building cultural connections and positioning Britain in China as a welcoming, vibrant, culturally diverse destination that people want to visit, is also in the spotlight.
VisitBritain CEO Patricia Yates said:
“China is a very important visitor market for Britain, forecast to be back in our top 10 most valuable this year, worth an estimated £1.2 billion to our economy in visitor spending. Joining the Prime Minister’s delegation is a timely opportunity to tell a compelling story of Britain and engage with cultural and industry leaders to compete for visitor spend and economic growth.
“We want our Chinese visitors to explore beyond London. The growing direct airline routes from China into regional gateways including Manchester are valuable chances to do that. Promoting our regional destinations using our film tourism campaign, we’re encouraging visitors to come now, stay longer and explore more.”
Understanding the motivations driving outbound travel from China, and trends in digital tools, booking platforms and the power of influencer-led content in competing for higher spending visitors are important fundamentals. VisitBritain is already the third most popular tourism board in the world on China’s Rednote’s lifestyle and e-commerce social media platform, demonstrating the appetite to visit.
VisitBritain continues to roll out its global screen tourism campaign ‘Starring GREAT Britain’ in China, using the powerful draw of films and TV shows to inspire visits to Britain, and promoting the creative industries. Its research shows 96% of Chinese travellers considering visiting us are interested in filming locations. The stories continue this year with blockbuster new films including Peaky Blinders, Sense and Sensibility and Wuthering Heights, valuable opportunities for VisitBritain to drive growth in visits from China, and spending, into regional destinations.
The visit to China this week also builds on VisitBritain’s recent trade mission to Chengdu where it brought together dozens of British tourism businesses and destinations with top China travel buyers ensuring that regional Britain is easily available to Chinese consumers.
In early February meanwhile, VisitBritain is hosting eight top travel buyers from China to Bath, Bristol, Manchester and Yorkshire, building destination knowledge and getting those products sold and onto the itineraries of future visitors.
VisitBritain’s latest forecast is for 641,000 visits from China to the UK this year, up 31% on the estimate for 2025, with those visitors spending £1.2 billion on their trips, up 35% on the estimate for 2025.
A major new report just published by VisitBritain also highlights the importance of China to the UK’s tourism industry. Longer-term forecasts show tourism from China to the UK is predicted to grow rapidly, by 20% annually in spending to 2030.
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