Member Article

Visitors generate £3.8 billion for Liverpool City Region

Tourism and the visitor economy across the Liverpool City Region now supports over 49,000 jobs and generates income in excess of £3.8billion.

The area now attracts almost 54 million day visitors annually, while the number of staying visitors has risen to 4.8 million, according to independent research commissioned by the Liverpool City Region Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP).

These figures are compiled using the STEAM (Scarborough Tourism Economic Activity Monitor) model which is used throughout the UK tourism industry to measure economic impact of the Visitor Economy.

The International Passenger Survey 2014, which covers only overseas staying visitors, show that in 2014 Liverpool saw 608,000 overnight staying trips by overseas visitors – a 9% rise from the 2013 figures.

This is a higher level of growth compared to other larger cities such as London (5%), Birmingham (2%) or Manchester (1%)

Liverpool in 2014 was the 6th most visited city in the UK by overseas visitors, slipping one place from the 5th placed spot it has occupied for the past few years.

Analysis shows one of the main reasons that Liverpool slipped to 6th place was not due to any slowdown in the city’s visitor market, but through very positive growth in Glasgow’s visitor economy (+22%). This growth was mainly due to a high profile campaign run by VisitScotland with Glasgow, Edinburgh and Inverness all recording double-digit percentage increases, as well as Glasgow hosting the 2014 Commonwealth Games.

Sara Wilde McKeown, Chair of the Visitor Economy Board for the LEP, said: “Whilst it’s disappointing that Liverpool’s international visitor ranking has slipped slightly, we should take encouragement from the fact that the sector has recorded strong year on year growth, with 2014 being no exception.

“We are also working hard with Visit England to secure additional funding for the international marketing activity currently enjoyed by other UK destinations including Glasgow through their own national tourism body”.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Simon Malia .