economic impact of tourism: UK

• 2005, Britons made 66.4million trips abroad, 3 times as much as in 1985- 2/3 visits were holidays, 1/2 of which werepackage holidays
• number of holidays continues to rise, fall in number of package holidays recently
• 81% journeys made by air
• spain/france accounted for 38% of destinations

• 30 million visits into UK in 2005 (double amount in 1984)-2/3 visits were holidays- total spending of visitors was £14.2billion
• USA largest spending country in UK
• UK residents spent £85billion-industry is seasonal, most domestic/foreign visits between April and Spetember

• accounts for 3.5% of UK's economy
• 2 million jobs either directly/indirectly sustained by tourism
• directly related employment totals 1.4million (5% of all UK's jobs)
• london- tourism 2nd largest and fastest growning sector of economy, accounts ofr 8% GDP and 13%employment

• attracts more domestic visitors than any other region in UK- accounts for 29% total employment

experiences problems due to:

• high seasonality- struggles in winter, if weather is bad in summer tourist numbers decline- jobs are seasonal
• overcrowding in summer- roads, car parks, beaches, attractions