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Visitors from North America Invade London Hotels

Hotels in London have their booking levels kept high because of visitors from many countries of the world, and the US and Canada are among the best performing source markets for the popular gateway city. According to London & Partners, the official promotional agency of the Mayor, there has been a sharp increase in the number of travellers from the countries mentioned above.

The latest official data only proves the growing popularity of the UK capital. During Q2 (April-June) 2017, as many as 5.5 million international visitors arrived in London. That is significantly more (+10%) than during the same period of 2016. In total, foreign guests of the capital spent as much as £3.4 billion during their stay in London. That is 15% more than in the second quarter of 2016.

However, the increase in the number of travellers from North America outpaces the average growth. Here, the increase is simply fabulous – 30% more visitors or 976,000 people in total. The spending of this category of travellers is no less impressive - £764 million. On average, the total spending of visitors from Northern America rose by 23% in Q2 2017. Actually, in the period from April to June 2017, nearly each fifth (18%) overseas visitor in London was either from the United States or from Canada. Together, these travellers accounted 22% of all spending.

Such a growth is in line with London’s global tourism policy. In accordance with the new Tourism Vision, the city plans to attract more than 3.3 million travellers from the United States by 2025. That’s almost a million higher than the current figure of 2.32m last year. That only underlines that North America is a priority source market for the capital of the UK.

The hospitality industry of London is one of the most important fields of the economy as it is worth 11.6% of the capital’s GDP and 9% of the UK GDP in general. Currently, more than 700,000 people in London work in the hospitality sector – that is 1 in 7 jobs. Of course, London hotels have other important and fast-growing source markets besides North America. Those are China (+103%), India (+90%), and the UAE (+43%).

19.10.2017

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