Latest figures show Liverpool City Region’s Visitor Economy is now worth £4.3bn, last year welcomed over 62m visitors to the region and supports over 51,500 jobs.
Liverpool also moved up the rankings to become the 5th most visited destination for overseas visitors – this is supported by hotel occupancy data which shows that last year there was a near 2% growth.
These findings are contained in the latest independent research for 2016 commissioned by VisitLiverpool, the City Region’s tourist board.
Headline city region-wide figures show:
- the region welcomed over 62m visitors in 2016, an increase of nearly 1m from 2015
- in 2016 there was a 3.9% increase in staying visitors compared to the previous year, with an increase of 6.4% of those staying in serviced accommodation
- there was a 4% increase in economic impact, growing to £4.3bn – with shopping and food and drink representing half of the overall value
- 2016 saw a 1.4% increase in the total number of jobs supported by the sector, a total of 51,729 overall
For Liverpool alone:
- the value of tourism has increased by 5% to 2.9bn
- visitor numbers have increased in Liverpool by 2% to 34.8m
These figures are published by the STEAM (Scarborough Tourism Economic Activity Monitor) model which is used throughout the UK tourism industry to measure economic impact of the Visitor Economy, and International Passenger Survey 2016.
Long term trends show that from 2009 to 2016, there has been a 55.9% growth in the economic value of the visitor economy – this is equivalent to an average growth of 8% per year. Over the same period there has been a 47% increase in the number of day visitors, with the value of tourism rising from 1.9m in 2009 to 2.9m in 2016.
Peter Sandman, Head of Visitor Economy for the LEP, said: “It is clear that the visitor economy is continuing to experience a healthy growth and continues to be of significant importance to the region’s economic base”
“The encouraging news of Liverpool moving up the rankings on the International Passenger Survey to become 5th most visited destination for overseas visitors also shows the continued appeal of the city as a global destination.”
Mayor of Liverpool, Joe Anderson, said: “We know how strong and wonderful our visitor economy is, and it’s very encouraging that its economic impact to the City Region has grown again to £4.3 billion, with £2.9 billion of that in Liverpool. I’m also delighted that we have increased the number of international visitors by 70,000, resulting in us now being ranked 5th in the UK and overtaking Glasgow.
“We will not rest on our laurels however and with exciting programs planned for the rest of 2017 and particularly in 2018, we anticipate further growth.”