Latest international visitor figures for the first nine months of 2005 continue to show that inbound tourism to the UK is performing well, VisitBritain said today.

Overseas residents have made over 23 million visits here so far this year – a ten per cent increase on January to September 2004 – and contributed £10.7 billion to the visitor economy.

Between January and September, the greatest growth came from Western Europe and the Rest of World regions with visits rising 11 per cent to 14.7 million and 18 per cent to 4.9 million respectively.

The provisional data also indicates that the £10.7 billion spent by overseas visitors is up nine per cent on the same period in 2004. North American visits for July to September increased three per cent, however low consumer confidence in the USA and increasing competition from rival destinations could be affecting longer term prospects from the region and account for the overall (January - September) two per cent fall in visits from North America.

Tom Wright, VisitBritain chief executive, said: “This is further positive news for Britain’s £74 billion visitor economy and we are on track to welcome 29.3 million international visitors by the end of this year, who will spend £13.9 billion while they are here.

“However, the figures also highlight some of the challenges that face the industry. Visitors from Western Europe traditionally spend less per visit than their North American counterparts and usually stay for a shorter time as well. Emerging markets including China, India, Eastern European and South East Asian countries continue to grow but will take time to reach their full potential. As well as extra investment in these newer markets, we must continue to support initiatives and brand building work in our traditional markets, particularly in the US.”

On 8 December VisitBritain launches its new, three-year strategies to further improve the marketing of Britain internationally and England to the British. The organisation is already committed to investing in emerging markets with new representatives in China, the Czech Republic, Greece, Hungary, Malaysia, Poland, Russia, South Korea and Thailand already in place.

In addition to expanding its presence in India with staff in Mumbai and Bangalore complementing the existing office in Delhi, this week also sees VisitBritain support British Airways’ Bangalore inaugural flights.

In addition, the travel industry from around the world will be in London next week (14-17 November 2005) for World Travel Market, where VisitBritain and its partners will showcase a number of new initiatives including:

·         the launch of the second issue of So British magazine. Aimed at high-spending visitors, the consumer magazine for luxury travel will now be available on flights and airport lounges, in addition to a select distribution overseas

·         a new flights engine on www.visitbritain.com will enable visitors to search online for flights – offered by national and low-cost airlines, and consolidators such as Opodo or Orbitz – to and around Britain

·         a new website to help the travel trade around the world find out all that Britain can offer their clients

The figures in full are: