Just how valuable are Aussie travellers to the UK?

Smiling girl in hat and sunglasses posing in Sydney Harbour
By Hannah Edensor


ExploreGB is off and raging, and amongst it all, Travel Weekly managed to suss out how much they care about Australia as a market on its own.

Gosh we’re self-centered!

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Anywho, speaking to media at the mammoth expo, Richard Nicholls, Head of Research and Forecasting at VisitBritain, gave us the lowdown on visitor statistics in Britain.

“Visits are up six per cent to 39.9 million,” Nicholls revealed, adding that they’re expected to crack the 40 million mark this year.

“But perhaps more importantly, spending is up 12 per cent to 25.1 billion pounds.”

So where’s all the growth coming from? Holiday visits, apparently, which skyrocketed 13 per cent year-on-year.

“We’re forecasting holiday visits will double in the next 15 years,” he added.

“Other purposes, like visiting friends and relatives, or business, are also growing, but not at the same rate as holidays.”

In these stats, Australia was #10 in terms of volume of visitors, with 982,000 visitors in 2017.

But it’s in value where we really shine, jumping up to #4 on the global scale.

Just behind markets of France, Germany and USA, Australia contributes the fourth highest value to Britain’s tourism economy, with over one billion pounds in total.

Australia’s growth is predicted to grow in the coming three years as well, with an estimated 2.2 per cent growth each year.

“Long haul visitors much more likely to be attracted to country by the exchange rate than more local markets,” Nicholls explained.

Australia was also ranked #6 in terms of visitors to the North East regions.

Visits to Scotland overall were up 14 per cent in 2017 – the clear winner of the UK in terms of growth – while London visits rose seven per cent.

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