TOURISM INDUSTRY

Tourism Industry

Tourism Industry

Multi-disciplinary nature of the tourism industry has marked it as a most valuable asset. All components of the tourism and hospitality trade have equal importance to the attainment of significant growth and development of the tourism industry. Economists estimate that 409.4 million visits were made to tourist attractions in 2000. Museums and art galleries received the largest share of these visits, followed by country parks and historic properties. Leisure parks also took a significant share of visits.

The latter category's share increased between 1997 and 2000, while the top three categories saw a fall in visitor numbers. The number of visits to tourist attractions fell in 1998, before recovering in 1999 and 2000. Overall visitor numbers increased by just 0.2% between 1997 and 2000, despite the opening of the Millennium Dome, the Tate Modern, the British Airways London Eye and other major attractions in the latter year. Total expenditure at tourist attractions in 2000 was approximately 1.5bn. In general, the inclement weather in 2000 dampened demand at many attractions — particularly outdoor attractions reliant on the day-trip market. The medium-term effect of the strength of sterling has continued to dampen demand from overseas residents for tourism in the UK.

Since 1980, the average number of visits per attraction has declined by 3%. (Foot, 1990) There are a number of reasons for this decline, including the growing number of attractions, the increasing demand for overseas holidays, and an increase in competition from other pastimes, such as shopping and sporting activities. Between 1996 and 2000, the proportion of UK adults who had visited a museum at least once in the previous 12 months fell from 26.2% to 23.6%.

In 1999, 6,215 tourist attractions (excluding churches and cathedrals) recorded or estimated the number of visits they received during the year. Of these, 2,328 recorded or estimated at least 10,000 visits. Of the attractions with more than 10,000 visits, 264 (11%) were owned by central government and a further 673 (29%) were owned by local authorities. A modest increase in the number of overseas leisure visitors to the UK in 2001 may stimulate a small rise in the number of visits to tourist attractions, but this will be offset by fewer new attractions and the loss of 6.5 million Millennium Dome visits. For this reason, Expert forecasts that the total number of visits to tourist attractions will fall marginally in 2001. Any increase will be the result of good weather.

Market Definition

This report is a study of the UK tourist attraction market. A tourist attraction is defined as a permanently-managed excursion destination which has been established for the enjoyment, amusement, entertainment or education of the day-visiting public.

Market Sectors

Type of Attraction

Tourist attractions fall into two broad, but not mutually exclusive, categories: 'heritage' attractions and all other attractions. `Heritage' has a broad meaning in this context, encompassing historic properties, museums and art galleries, and many gardens, monuments and churches. For statistical purposes, tourist attractions are divided into ten major subcategories: museums and galleries, country ...