Image: Hampton Court Palace is among the locations for Netflix show 'Bridgerton' (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 J vdC)
Its new campaign taps into the global appeal of British film and TV, as inbound tourism and record high spending projected in 2025.
Overseas tourism to Britain is expected to grow this year, powered in part by ‘screen tourism’.
VisitBritain made the predictions about increased inbound tourism and increased tourism spend as part of its forecast for 2025.
It suggests spending by international visitors in the UK will reach £33.7 billion this year, up 7 per cent on the spending predicted in 2024.
A total of 43.4m overseas visits are expected to Britain, a more than 2 million increase on 2024, and the highest in 10 years.
The organisation has also launched a ‘Starring GREAT Britain’ campaign, highlighting the British film and TV locations available to visit, known as ‘screen tourism’.
The campaign comes as its research suggests more than 9-out-of-10 potential visitors to the UK would be keen to visit film and TV locations during a trip.
VisitBritain CEO Patricia Yates said the campaign “is using the powerful draw of screen tourism to showcase our vibrant cities, contemporary culture and beautiful coast and countryside, alongside our welcome, encouraging visitors to broaden their itineraries, stay longer and to come now.”
The organisation reports that the United States continues as the UK’s largest and most valuable visitor market. Spending by Americans is forecast to be up 9% on 2024 to a record £6.7 billion this year, meaning that almost £1 in every £5 of inbound visitor spending in the UK is by US visitors.
Visits and spending from Europe overall are also showing growth on 2024, although VisitBritain said it was a “mixed picture across major European inbound markets”.
Last week, Victoria and Albert Museum director Tristam Hunt wrote in The Financial that London should introduce a tourist charge, with the results funds invested in cultural infrastructure.
