31/03/2010

York's annual tourism figures have been announced today and hailed as the best results ever by the organisations responsible for marketing the city - Visit York and Welcome to Yorkshire. *The new figures reveal that tourism is worth £442.6 million to the York visitor economy and annual visitor numbers stand at 7.1 million.

These latest figures are the result of a twelve month study into the economic impact of tourism for York and Yorkshire, commissioned by Welcome to Yorkshire and conducted by Tribal Consulting.

The results for York are broken down as follows:

Total Annual Visitor Spend

£442.6m - Total visitor spend

Out of the above:

£239.7 million - was spent by leisure visitors (including £112.9m spend by day visitors and £126.8m spend by staying visitors). Leisure visitors accounted for 54% of the total visitor expenditure in York. Of the staying leisure visitors, a third of the spend (£42.4m) came from overseas visitors - highlighting once again the importance of overseas visitors to the city. For staying leisure visitors, accommodation was the biggest spend (£45.4m) followed by eating and drinking (£32.1m).

£202.9 million - total value of business tourism

Total Annual Visitor Numbers

7.1 million.

Of these, 6 million (85%) were leisure visitors, either on a leisure trip (4.3m), attending an event in the city (0.1m) or visiting friends and relatives (1.6m) and in addition 1.1 million were business visitors.

56% of all visitors came from Yorkshire.

800,000 leisure visitors stayed overnight in York and just over a third - 300,000 of these -came from overseas. York was shown to have the highest percentage of overseas visitors of any other destination within Yorkshire.

1.1 million were business visitors - staying a total of 2.2 million days.

Demographics

The United States held on to its top spot as the single most important country for overseas visitors - with 35% (105,000) of all overseas visitors traveling from North America. European visitors (as in previous years), came in a very close second, supplying 34% (102,000) visitors. 24% (72,000) of overseas visits came from Australasia, with the remaining 7% (21,000) traveling from the Far East and the rest of the world.

The largest proportion of visitors were aged between 55 and 64 (20%), with 16% aged between 45 and 54, and 13% aged between 35 and 44. 14% were over 65.

80% of leisure visitors had visited the city before and an emphatic 99% said they would recommend York to a friend.

Jobs

The new survey demonstrated that York supports 22,910 full time equivalent jobs - more than double the figure estimated in previous years.

Gillian Cruddas, Chief Executive of Visit York said, ‘this is the most robust and comprehensive study ever conducted into the value of tourism for the economy in York. By taking into account not just leisure visits but also the value of business tourism, visits to events and visits to friends and relatives, the true value of tourism to the York economy has been revealed like never before - it's fantastic news - and demonstrates the importance of tourism for the York economy. This new survey offers us an in depth analysis into where visitors are coming from and how they spend their money, which will enable Visit York and Welcome to Yorkshire to market the city even more effectively in the year ahead.' ENDS

Notes To The Editor

Please note - The figures quoted above relate to a new research model introduced in 2009. *The results refer to the calendar year Jan 2008 - Dec 2008. The next annual research figures will be available for the calendar year Jan 2009 - Dec 2009 in August 2010.

Visit York has previously used a research model - titled ‘An Economic Model for Tourism' - developed by the University of York. This research model has now been replaced by a new model - titled ‘The Economic Impact of Tourism in Yorkshire‘. The work was commissioned by Welcome to Yorkshire and produced by Tribal Consulting.

It is not therefore statistically correct to compare year on year figures for 2007 (University of York model) v 2008 due to changes in methodology. However, in order to make a correct comparison between 2008 and 2007 the ‘Economic Impact of Tourism in Yorkshire model' has been run using 2007 data - this demonstrated that the leisure visitor market in York grew from 2007 to 2008, with both the number of visitors and their spend increasing by 3%. Business tourism struggled more with the credit crunch, with a downward trend seen nationwide. In York, the number of business visitors and their associated spend both dropped by 5% from 2007 to 2008, though business tourism still showed a healthy return for the city - £202.9 million.

One can also take from the above information that the true value for tourism in the York economy is substantially more than previously recorded.

Key reasons for the increase in statistics are as follows:

Measurement of business tourism included for first time
Measurement of visitors staying with friends and relatives included for first time
Measurement of visitors to major events included for first time
A wider definition of a ‘day visitor' - now includes visitors participating in sports, family events etc eg a wedding....ie not activity that you would usually do - this definition is taken from the World Tourism Organisation (WTO)

Research included face to face interviews with leisure visitors, supported by data from occupancy surveys, bedstock data, visitor attraction monitors and so on.

For further information please contact:

Kay Hyde - PR Manager - Visit York
Direct Line: 01904 554451
Mobile: 07961 828092
Email: kh@visityork.org

Katie Porter - PR Executive - Visit York
Direct Line: 01904 554436
Email: kp@visityork.org

Visit York

· Visit York is supported by Welcome to Yorkshire, City of York Council and tourism businesses. Yorkshire Forward, The Regional Development Agency, funds Welcome to Yorkshire, which is charged with improving the Yorkshire and Humber visitor economy.

· Visit York's aim is to market York as a must-see world-class destination to the leisure and business visitor, and ensure investment to develop the quality of tourism in York. Visit York is responsible for leisure and conference marketing, visitor services (running the city's Visitor Information Centre), training and developing the tourism product.

· Visit York is the driving force of the city's tourism industry. Key facts:

4.09 million visitors (2007) - University of York Model
7.1 million visitors (2008) - Tribal consulting Model

£364 million total visitor spend (2007) - University of York Model
£442.6 million total visitor spend (2008) - Tribal consulting Model