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London remains number 1 city destination in the world for international travel.
Visit London today announced 2007 as the second, consecutive record year for overseas visitors to the capital.
London remains the number 1 city destination in the world for international travel welcoming more overseas visitors than New York and Paris.
The provisional results, published by the Office of National Statistics, show a record 16.1m overseas visitors to the capital last year, up nearly 3% on 2006. The total number of visitors to the capital in 2007 was 26.2 million.
Total spending by overseas visitors was £8.7bn, up 11.2% on 2006 with total spend, excluding day visits, reaching a record £10.9bn, up 8%.
Mayor of London, Boris Johnson said:
"Tourism is one of London's success stories and translates directly into jobs and income for Londoners.
"Record overseas tourist numbers demonstrate the impact of London on the world stage and I am delighted with these results."
Visit London Chief Executive James Bidwell said:
"
London is the greatest city destination on earth and the latest visitor numbers confirm this. Record numbers of overseas visitors to our capital together with record levels of spend boosted the economy by an additional £800m last year. Tourism is worth around £15bn a year to London and with 280,000 full time jobs our industry is a key economic driver for the capital. This is particularly encouraging in the lead up to 2012 when the tourism and cultural sectors will be the primary economic beneficiaries of the Games."
Despite the weak American dollar, spending by US visitors rose 5.3% to £1.6bn, the highest level since 2000. However, the number of US visitors fell by 1.7% to 2.5 million. The US remains London's largest market followed by France (1.34m visitors) and Germany (1.25m visitors).
The results show visits from Europe rose by 2.7%. Other mature markets saw significant rises with Australia up almost 20% with 690,000 visitors.
The growing importance of emerging markets was also reflected in the figures: the number of Chinese visitors rose by 37% to 89,000. Visits from India rose by over 3% to 237,000 and for the second consecutive year, Indian visitors to London outspent the Japanese – £171m against Japanese spend of £149m.
In contrast to the strength of overseas visits to the capital domestic tourism fell last year, down 7.5% to 10.1m visits. This mirrored results across the UK which saw overall domestic visitor numbers fall by 2% in 2007.
Commenting on the decline in domestic visitors, Mr Bidwell said:
"Domestic tourism has been in decline across the UK for a number of years. Since their peak in 2000, domestic overnight visits have fallen 30% across Britain. This is primarily due to the growth of cheap, short haul carriers and expanding regional airports across Europe.
"London will continue to benefit from hosting major events such as the return of the American NFL in October this year as well as high profile exhibitions. Tutankhamun at The O2 continues to be a major draw for domestic visitors to London. The recent Chinese Terracotta Warriors exhibition at the British Museum saw over 850,000 visitors another record result for one of the capital's leading attractions."
Global tourism growth is forecast to slow in 2008. However, the World Tourism Organisation still expects world outbound growth to remain close to the long-term average of +4%. Visit London forecasts that overseas and domestic tourism will slow in 2008. Strong visitor numbers since 2005 put London in a resilient position to face any slowdown.
ENDS
Media enquiries:
Rania Wannous 07825 671 400 / 020 7234 5841 or rwannous@visitlondon.com
Visit London is the official visitor organisation for London. Our role is to promote London as the most exciting city on the planet, targeting domestic and overseas leisure and business visitors as well as Londoners. Visit London works in partnership with the Mayor of London, the LDA and the capital's tourism industry.
Visit London's Tourism Prospects, a quarterly report on the state of the capital’s visitor economy is available here
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