VisitEngland welcomes additional £10m from the Government’s Regional Growth Fund for the development of tourism in the North

LONDON, 2014-11-7 — /Travel PR News/ — VisitEngland’s Chief Executive James Berresford said:

“We welcome this additional £10million from the Government’s Regional Growth Fund (RGF) for the development of a new strategy for tourism in the North. This commitment from Government clearly demonstrates that tourism is being increasingly recognised as a key driver of the economy which creates important jobs throughout the country.

We will be working closely with our sponsor department DCMS, our local partners and the private sector to devise and implement the strategy to launch next year.

VisitEngland is committed to supporting all areas of the country to ensure that tourism in England thrives. We will continue to work closely with partners throughout the country to build on the success of recent activity.

In 2012 we received £19.8m from the RGF and implemented a three-year project, ‘Growing Tourism Locally’. The programme to date has generated a total of £527 million additional tourism spend and created a record number of 9,800 additional jobs for the sector already beating our target of 9,139 jobs.”

VisitEngland press contacts:

Sarah Long, Head of Corporate Communications Tel: 020 7578 1452, Mob: 07500555651, Email:sarah.long@visitengland.org or Angelah Sparg, Corporate Communications Manager Tel: 02075781482, Mob: 07917 183 668, Email: Angelah.sparg@visitengland.org  Website:  www.visitengland.org

Notes to Editors

• The Growing Tourism Locally project is funded by £19.8m from the Government’s Regional Growth Fund (RGF) and with a total investment of £41.6m including contributions from VisitEngland and the private sector.
• Since 2008 (i.e. before the onset of the recession) the following figures provide cause for concern illustrating a growing gap between the London and the rest of England.
• The number of inbound trips to London has increased by 14%, while the number of trips to other areas of England is still 4% lower than it was.
• Spending has increased by 39% and 16% respectively. As a result, London’s share of inbound spending in England has grown from 57% to 61% over the period
• To add more context, visitor volumes in London are now 8% higher than their best pre-recession year (2006), but in the rest of the country, they are 5% lower (pre-recession ROE best year was 2007). Figures are from the International Passenger Survey.

About VisitEngland
• VisitEngland is the country’s national tourist board. We work in partnership with the industry to develop the visitor experience across England, plan national tourism strategy, grow the value of tourism in England and provide advocacy for the industry and our visitors.  Our work is underpinned by robust research and customer insights. You can access the latest in-depth market intelligence and statistics on www.visitengland.org/insight-statistics.

• England is a unique destination and a real powerhouse in global tourism. It represents 84 per cent of the total UK visitor economy, is worth £106 billion, and supports 2.6 million jobs.
• For corporate information see www.visitengland.org and for consumer information see www.visitengland.com.

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