Our achievements 2018/19
Our results for 2018/19 show that we have more than delivered on our Government targets.
In 2018/19, our international and domestic activity generated £951 million of additional visitor spend across the nations and regions of Britain. This means that for every £1 invested in us, a visitor spends £23 in the UK benefitting the economy.
In 2018/19 The VisitBritain Shop generated £26.9 million in revenue, with £1.9 million profit invested in marketing Britain overseas.
The year also saw us continue to build on powerful partnerships, generating £11.5 million in private sector investment across our activity.
Download our 18/19 Annual Review (PDF, 6MB) to see more results.
Domestic tourism performance
In 2018 England saw increased levels of spend by domestic visitors, despite seeing some decline in overall volume. Increased spend was seen acorss the nation with many of the country’s nine regions seeing uplift. Overall, visitor spend in England reached £92 billion, accounting for 79% of the total visitor spend for Britain.
There were 97.4 million domestic overnight trips taken in England in 2018, worth £19.3 billion. These figures represent an decrease from last year of -3% volume, while spend increased by +1%, powered by a deline in both domestic holiday and VFR trips.
Day visits contributed more than £53 billion to the English economy in 2018, with visitor attractions across England reporting a 2% increase in visits during 2018, led by trips to Museums and Art Galleries (up 6%)
And there are encouraging signs for domestic tourism in England in the first six months of 2019. Domestic overnight trips were up by 1%, whilst expenditure has risen by 2%. Holiday trips also grew by 2% between January-June 2019, whilst Business trips are showing strong increased up +5%
View our England research section for a wealth of market intelligence, research and insights into tourism in England
Inbound tourism performance
In 2018, the UK achieved £22.9 billion in overseas visitor spend, down 7% from the 2017 record. The overseas visits to the UK also decreased by 3% reaching 37.9 million in 2018, after several years of growth since 2010.
2018’s inbound tourism was led by holiday visits which made up 2 in 5 international visits to the UK with 15.1 million visits. Those visitors spent £10.4 billion, the second best on record. Visits to friends and relatives reached 11.8 million visits to the UK, also the second highest record with spending of £5.7 billion.
International visits to the English regions outside of London fell by 5% to 15.7 million. Yorkshire saw visit growth of 4% to a record 1.4 million visits with overseas spending growing 6% to £604 million, the highest on record for this region. The East Midlands also saw a record in spending of £527 million in 2018, 19% up on 2017.
In 2018 Scotland achieved a record 3.5 million visits, up 10%, but with spend falling by 3% to £2.2 billion. Wales saw 941 million visits and generated £405 million from international visitor spend, up 10% on 2017. Yorkshire saw visit growth of 4% to a record 1.4 million visits with overseas spending growing 6% to £604 million, the highest on record for this region. The East Midlands also saw a record in spending of £527 million in 2018, 19% up on 2017.
View our inbound research and markets sections to find more facts and figures on international tourism to Britain.
