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Newcastle's tourism boost

The number of overseas visitors to Newcastle has increased by 54%, a new survey has revealed.

A total of 278,000 foreign tourists came to the city in 2007 rising from 180,000 in 2000, according to figures from the City Tourism Index.

The survey, commissioned by Jurys Inns Hotel Group, found there was a 7% growth in the £53bn UK city break market since 2000 at the expense of declining tourism in seaside, rural and historical locations.

The report predicts that consumers will choose city breaks rather than seaside holidays as the recession impacts on travel spending.

City break trends among under 35s are up 30% revealing a ‘generation U’ (urban) of young people attracted to study, live, work and visit the UK’s cities.

The survey found that Liverpool is the most improved city in the UK for tourism, with the number of foreign visitors to the city increasing by 186% from 190,000 to 544,000.

It found that foreign tourists are shunning historical destinations such as Stratford, Coventry and York in favour of former industrial cities that have been transformed through recent regeneration.

London is the country’s powerhouse destination with 47% of all inbound UK visits in 2007 (15,340,000).

John Brennan, chief executive of Jurys Inns Group, said: “The story of the last decade has been the renaissance of the UK’s former industrial cities into engines of tourism growth. Our City Index demonstrates that city tourism has outperformed the industry as foreign and British visitors gravitate away from seaside, historical and rural destinations to the UK’s more vibrant cities.

“We forecast another £10bn in tourism growth for UK cities if they continue on the same trend to 2016.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ruth Mitchell .