Member Article

South Warwickshire tourism boost brings in £45m

New figures have revealed that Coventry and Warwickshire attracted more than 10 million tourists trips last year – bringing £45 million a month to the local economy.

Shakespeare’s England, which oversees tourism in Coventry and Warwickshire, has published a four per cent rise in the overall value of these increased trips which are worth more than £500 million annually.

The membership organisation, which works to promote the region to national and international audiences, has also seen a 7.3 per cent increase in the number of day trips to the region, helping to support more than 12,000 jobs in the sector.

The official statistics have been published by Visit Britain and are very pleasing viewing for Shakespeare’s England CEO, Helen Peters.

“These are extremely positive figures and again underline the importance of the sector to the local and regional economy,” she said.

“Everyone is aware of the challenges post-recession and pre-Brexit in the sector, so these figures are extremely welcome and do bode well for the future.

“Jobs in the sector grew by four per cent from 2016 and we hope to see a continued increase in employment opportunities in the tourism industry in Warwickshire for 2018.

“Warwickshire is a truly wonderful place to visit with so many different attractions and a rich history as a county that continues to attract visitors from around the world, but it is a very congested marketplace and we have to ensure we are leaving no stone unturned to pull in more visitors and get them to stay longer.

“In particular Stratford has an unending popularity as the birthplace of William Shakespeare and gives us a global platform to publicise our other attractions which range from cars to castles, butterflies to boating.

“We’ve been encouraging people to explore Warwickshire beyond their day trips with our Stay, Play, Explore Scheme which aims at promoting overnight visits to the area with the many different types of accommodation we have to offer and the variety of attractions there are to enjoy.

“The total spend of tourists in Warwickshire for 2017 was £538 million and we hope that with our efforts to promote the region as the perfect place to visit, we’ll continue to see this figure grow for 2018.

“We love celebrating Warwickshire and it has so many exciting tourist attractions and hotels for visitors to stay in that we expect this rise in tourism to the county to continue.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Matt Joyce .