New visitor stats reveal increase in global travellers
21st October 2019
Visit Britain has now released the traveller information for 2018 which reveals that overall the UK had a total of 37.9million visits, with 427,670 of them being to Devon. Over the past year, Devon has had an increase in visitors from America, China, Germany, the Netherlands and France, with travellers spending up to £2,000 during their stay.
Sally Everton, Visit Devon director, said: “ Since the start of Visit Devon as an active but non-funded DMO, our activity over the past three years is really showing results in the inbound visitor numbers to the county.
“We had a simple strategy: to self-fund all our overseas activity working with various partners from across the county, and have worked at various trade events in those chosen markets, often stand sharing with Cornwall. We have been at ITB in Berlin for the past three years, covering both trade and consumer days, which really pays dividends by speaking to the consumer, as we can get a real feel for what THEY are looking for out of their trip. The results for our German market remains strong with a 23% YOY increase on visitor numbers and an increased spend of 31%. For the UK as a whole, this market is back by 3.5% YOY and spend back by 4.4%.
“The North American market which we have been working hard over the past three years at trade events, such as VEMEX and Destination Britain North America. These were combined with sales calls in key cities. The stats show an increase of 32% on visitor numbers and an increased spend of 48% which is up against the UK average. We have done two events in Chicago and have seen a spike in visitor numbers from that area. We also had two articles published by Chicago-based journalists, which gave us good exposure.
“TravelSquire featured our Cornwall-Devon itineraries (part of the DEF project) and promotional film footage as Feature of the Month twice. We have hosted a number of FAM trips from both the US and Canada for both agents and journalists. The ROI from the US in particular, is quicker than most markets and needs continuous work. We have also worked the Dutch market and exhibited at Vakantiebuers in Utrecht, again covering both trade and consumer days and the market saw a rise in visitor numbers by 4% but back on spend. “Upon further research, the Dutch have been either staying in their camper vans or with friends and family. France has seen a significant growth and we are building relations with Brittany Ferries with the Plymouth connections to continue growth. Spend is up by 35% YOY to just over £10M.
“China is our fastest growing market with an increase of 95% and spend is up by 432% to just short of £10M - numbers are still relatively small but increasing YOY. I have been working China with certain venues since 2012 under my consultancy business, Sally Everton Associates, but over the past two years have branded as Visit Devon at Destination Britain China & NE Asia, and the figures speak for themselves.”