Member Article

Manchester tourist numbers close gap on Edinburgh

Manchester is closing the gap on Edinburgh as the UK’s second most popular destination for international visitors.

The Office of National Statistics released data as part of the yearly International Passenger Survey (IPS), which showed that Manchester gained nearly 85,000 visitors in 2012.

Edinburgh attracted 1.2m international visitors compared with Manchesters 932,300, which represents a big push in the number of visitors from 2011 when the gap between the two cities was much larger.

The top ten countries of origin for Manchester’s visitors were Ireland, Germany and the U.S, whilst Poland and France followed closely behind.

The Netherlands, Spain, Norway, Canada and Belgium also came into the northern city’s top ten.

Andrew Stokes, chief executive of Marketing Manchester, said: “The city’s global connectivity is key to its international standing. Manchester Airport’s route network is unrivalled outside of London and continues to grow.

“In the last twelve months we have seen the introduction of new services to places like Washington DC and Moscow – attracting people that might otherwise have flown into Heathrow or rival destinations in Europe.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Miranda Dobson .