Facts and Figures
- In 2004 approximately
10 million visitors came to Worcestershire.
- The visitor market
is made up of 1.3 million visitors
who stayed overnight in the County (13%) and 8.6 million visits
(87%) from those on an irregular long leisure day trip of 3 hours or more duration
from home or from a ‘holiday’ base, but not stopping overnight in the area.
- The overnight
visitors spent a total of 4 million nights in the County.
- The main beneficiaries
of the visitor spending are shops, hotels, guesthouses,
B&B’s, cafes/ restaurants, pubs, attractions/ entertainment, garages/ transport. The accommodation sector received around £43 million in business
turnover from visitor spending, retailers around £113 million
and catering £124 million. The model suggests around £41 million is spent on entertainment/ leisure/ at attractions and £49 million
on transport and fuel.
- During their visit to Worcestershire, tourists spent a total
of £370 million. On
average, about £30.83 million is spent in the local economy each month
- Visitors staying
overnight spent £137 million in the County, compared with £233 million from those on
an irregular day trip.The 10 million visitors to Worcestershire, spending £370 million on tourism in
the County support in
the region of 11,276 jobs, both for local residents and from
those living nearby
Tourism supports actual jobs in the
following 5 key business
sectors.
- Accommodation Sector
- Retailing
- Catering
- Leisure/Attractions/Entertainment
- Transport Services
Type
of Visitor
in 200556% of all visitors to the County were on
a day trip from home
17% were domestic visitors touring in/through Worcestershire
28%
were domestic visitors staying overnight in the County
3% of all visitors were touring
overseas visitors
3% of overseas visitors were staying overnight in the County
Day
visitors to Worcestershire were from the neighbouring counties of the West Midlands, accounting
for over a third (49%) and Gloucestershire, (8%). The other main generating counties were Warwickshire
(6%), Staffordshire (6%), Shropshire (6%) and Herefordshire (4%).
Top six origin
of overnight UK visitors were from the West Midlands (11%), Hampshire/Isle of Wight
(5%), Lancashire (4%), London/Middlesex (4%), Surrey (4%) and South Wales (4%).
The
sample of overseas visitors was extremely small and therefore the results must be
treated with caution. The leading countries are USA (24%), Australia (19%), Canada (9%), New Zealand
(8%), Germany (7%), Eastern Europe (6%) and South Africa (5%).
16% of all visitors
were in the County for the very first time
84% were repeat
visitors
Length of
Stay
In 2005 the average length of stay in the County for all day
and touring visitors was 4 hours 31 minutes.
Of the overnight visitor market half (50%) were staying in the
county for 1-3 nights.
Accommodation
35%
of overnight visitors stayed with friends/relatives,
17% used hotels
12%
stayed in a B&B.
11% were in a touring caravan
6%
used rented or self-catered accommodation.
5% of staying visitors
used a static caravan
5% were camping.
Method
of Transport
84% of visitors came by car with 1 % of
that being hired cars
6% came on tour buses
4% of
all visitors arrived by train
2% used a public bus.
Activities
Activities
vary according to the type of trip visitors are on i.e. day, touring, overnight, but in general terms
the main activities undertaken were:
General
sightseeing (32%)
Visiting an attraction (27%)
Hiking/walking
(12%)
Visiting friends and relatives (10%)
Shopping
(6%)
Other (6%)
Visiting an historic site (3%)
Visitor
Spending
Visitor spending went on to the following range
of services:
Accommodation
(29%)
Eating/drinking out (28%)
Shopping (26%)
Transport/fuel
(8%)
Entertainment (8%),
The spend-per-head by
market segment varies from UK Day Visitor £15.73 per head per day, through UK Overnight £96.53 per head
per trip. Overseas overnight visitors spent approximately £169.76 per head per night, and overseas touring
visitors £93.03 per head per night.
Socio
Economic Group
The type of visitor can
be seen through socio-economic groups. In broad terms the groups are as follows.
AB - Managerial, administrative
or
professional at senior or intermediate level
C1 - Supervisory, clerical (i.e. white collar),
junior administrative or professional
C2 - Skilled manual worker
DE -
Semi-skilled
and unskilled manual worker retired state pensioner
Casual
earner, unemployed.
| |
AB |
C1 |
C2 |
DE |
| Total |
31% |
32% |
21% |
16% |
| Day Visitor |
33% |
29% |
22% |
16% |
| Touring UK |
30% |
43% |
11% |
16% |
| Overnight UK |
27% |
33% |
23% |
17% |
| Overseas |
46& |
26% |
17% |
11% |
NB:
Please note that the overseas sample size is low and should be treated with caution
Across
the whole of Worcestershire, 64% of visitors were in the ABC1 groups.
Information
Source: 2005 Visitor Survey