Hopes that the Olympics will boost UK tourism grew yesterday as a new report showed overseas visitors are remaining astonishingly loyal to Britain.
More than three-quarters of the 30 million travellers who came here in 2009 were making return trips, according to the exclusive VisitBritain research.
The figures, gathered from interviews with 50,000 overseas tourists as part of the Government’s International Passenger Survey(1) showed that 77 per cent had been to the UK at least once in the previous 10 years – and often many times.
News that such a high proportion had come back raises hopes that people who are inspired to visit Britain for the first time by the 2012 Games -particularly younger visitors from the high growth tourism countries – will also become regular returners.
The research also revealed residents of which countries were most – and least – likely to make a return trip to the UK. For example:
•          Travellers from the beautiful landlocked Grand Duchy of Luxembourg are the most loyal to Britain – 96% of those that visited the UK last year have dropped in at least once during the previous decade.
•          Residents of the Republic of Ireland are second most loyal, on 95%.
•          People from the wealthy United Arab Emirates are third, with 92% being regular visitors to the United Kingdom.
•          At the other end of the table, the travellers who are least likely to be return visitors are people from Chile and Taiwan only 33% of whom have been here before, and Argentina on 34%.
USA
Just over seven out of ten (71%) were repeat visitors in 2009 compared to 68% in 2004
The Gulf
Visitors from the Gulf region, consisting of the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain, and Oman are Britain’s highest value customers, the report shows.
Some 91% visitors from the UAE who came for a holiday were repeaters. But the story does not end there – this group visited the UK an average of nine times each in the last ten years, indicating that many visit every year.
They spend around £1,750 on each visit which means that over a ten year period each ‘customer’ spends over £15,000 in total in the UK.
Ireland
Meanwhile 90% of holiday visitors from the Irish Republic visited the UK an average of eight times each in the past decade. They spent far less per visit than those from the UAE, about £400 or £3,000 over ten years.
Europe
The bulk of holiday makers to Britain come from France, Spain, Italy, Belgium, Germany, and the Netherlands. These nationalities tend to be more balanced between repeat and ‘first-time’ visitors.
For example, 59% of holiday visitors from France and 56% from Germany are repeaters. An average holiday visitor from these markets will typically be on their fourth visit to Britain in the last ten years, spending around £300-£400 each time.
Japan
Japanese holiday visitors have a lower repeat rate, but spend around £1,500 per visit. Holiday visitors from Brazil have an even lower repeat rate, and spend around £700 per visit. However the volume of visits from Brazil has roughly doubled over the last five or six years which suggests the number of repeaters from that country will soon climb.
VisitBritain’s Director of Strategy and Communications, Patricia Yates, said: ‘’Considering the number of worldwide destinations available to overseas travellers, and the fierce competition for overseas visitors, it is very encouraging to know that that 77% of the 30 million overseas tourists who came to the UK last year had already visited in the last ten years and chosen to return to Britain. It is an important sign that Britain is to generate a sustained uplift in tourism after the Olympics.’’
