Lancashire Tourism hits record 64m visits £3.8 billion spend

The latest figures show growth in visitor numbers and spend for the 7th year running.

SUMMARY  

• Overall, visitor numbers are up 1.7% YOY to 64.38 million

• Of these, 56.30 million are day visitors (up 2%) and 8.08 million are staying visitors (up 0.1%)

• Staying visitors generated 24.985 million visitor nights.

• The average length of stay is 3 nights.

• Staying visitors are made up of 53% staying in serviced accommodation; 17% in non-serviced and 30% are from the VFR segment (Visiting Friends and Relatives)

• Day visitors – an extra 1.2 million day visits were undertaken in 2015 compared to 2014

• Economic impact is up 3.1% YOY to £3.8 billion. Day visitors generated £1.87 billion  (49% of the total) and staying visitors £1.94 billion (51%).

• Staying visitors generate an average spend of £239.66 per visit; day visitors – £33.23

• Shopping / food and drink continue to be most significant sectors for generating visitor spend, accounting for 71% of all direct spending. In 2015, this amounted to £1.146 million for retail and £907 million for food and drink.

The STEAM (Scarborough Tourism Economic Activity Monitor) model used by most destination management organsations, including Marketing Lancashire, uses locally derived data from a variety of sources such as hotels, attractions, tourist information centres, events and other accommodation to estimate the number of visitors, revenue generated and employment supported by tourism.

The STEAM model, used since 2009, provides the county with a continuous tourism economic impact dataset which helps pinpoint trends, highlight areas of particular growth or those in need of support.