Importance of the UK travel and tourism industry Essay

Importance of the UK travel and tourism industry - Essay Example In "Importance of the UK travel and tourism industry" essay, the author gives full analysis of the tourism sector in the United Kingdom, including outbound, inbound and domestic tourism. After three years of downturn for the tourism industry, it robustly rebounded in 2004 with more than 760 million arrivals globally – an increase of around ten percent over 2003. This was indeed a welcome change after three years of stagnation following the September 11 attacks, the SARS crisis and the Iraq war, almost all destination markets recorded substantial growth. It is estimated that there are 1.4 million jobs in tourism in the UK, some 5% of all people in employment in the UK amounting to more jobs in tourism than in construction or transport put together. Of these, approximately 130,400 of these jobs are in self-employment. The broader perspective of the Travel & Tourism economy (direct and indirect) is expected to create 16,590 new jobs for the UK economy for a total of 2,857,300 job s dependent on Travel & Tourism or 9.3 percent of total employment. Domestic tourism: The total revenue garnered was to the tune of  £13.7 billion in 2003 by the UK residents and they took 70.5 million holidays of one night or more. Of these 22.3 million was business travel comprising of overnight business trips spending  £6.1 billion while the rest was leisure travel amounting to 34.3 million overnight trips to friends and relatives spending  £3.4 billion, overall with an expenditure estimated to be over  £59 billion in 2003. ... The top five overseas markets for the UK in 2004 were: Country Visits (000) Country Spend ( m) USA 3,616 USA 2,400 France 3,254 Germany 825 Germany 2,968 France 769 Irish Republic 2,578 Irish Republic 760 Netherlands 1,620 Spain 618 (Source from website The UK industry is expected to benefit from strong inbound traffic to post GBP34.9 -13824 (US$66.6 billion) in total Visitor Exports in 2005 or 11.5 per cent of total exports. Outbound Tourism: The number of visits abroad made by UK residents has almost tripled since 1984, to a record 64.2 million visits in 2004. Two-thirds of these visits abroad were holidays, just under half of which were package holidays. Spending on visits abroad by UK residents increased to a record 30.3 billion, a fourfold increase between 1984 and 2004 in real terms, and a 10 per cent increase between 2003 and 2004. (Source from website) Domestic tourism: The total revenue garnered was to the tune of 13.7 billion in 2003 by the UK residents and they took 70.5 million holidays of one night or more. Of these 22.3 million was business travel comprising of overnight business trips spending 6.1 billion while the rest was leisure travel amounting to 34.3 million overnight trips to friends and relatives spending 3.4 billion, overall with an expenditure estimated to be over 59 billion in 2003. Expenditure from domestic and inbound tourism 2001 ( billion) 2002 ( billion) Spending by overseas residents Visits to the UK 12.8 11.3 Fares to UK carriers 3.5 3.2 Spending by domestic tourists Trips of 1+ nights 26.1 26.1 Day