Figures reveal summer tourism boom

The Great Britain Day Visits Survey which is published today, shows that the number of tourism day visits made to Wales in the 12 months ending September 2016 has increased by more than 28% compared to the previous 12 months, while the amount spent has increased by 40%.

There were 95.2 million tourism day visits to Wales, with an associated spend of £3,609 million.

Spend per visit is now higher in Wales than in GB as a whole, with an average spend of £38 per visit in Wales, compared with £34 per visit across GB.

Cabinet Secretary for the Economy and Infrastructure, Ken Skates, said: 

“As one of our measures of tourism performance, it’s extremely good news that such a big increase has been reported in the number of people coming here on day trips and the amount these visitors spend. These figures also support the view from our Tourism Barometer Survey which was conducted after the August bank holiday, in which 84% businesses reported that they were busier - or as busy - as in our record breaking year in 2015.  The main reason given for being busier was that more British people stayed in the UK over the summer.

“We’ve also recently seen that the number of overseas visitors to Wales has increased 15% in the first 6 months of 2016 compared to the first 6 months of 2015, which is the highest increase among the nations of the UK. The figures also show that while there has been a small decrease in expenditure across the UK as a whole, expenditure by overseas visitors in Wales has increased by more than 8%.

“These figures show that our marketing work is having an impact, and is excellent news as we look at bringing the Year of Adventure 2016 in Wales to a close.  We’re now looking at working with the industry to deliver an unforgettable Year of Legends in 2017 and maximise the opportunities presented to us by north Wales being listed by the Lonely Planet  as one of the ten best places in the world to visit next year.”