Market Intelligence

Welcome to TSE's Market Intelligence page. Here you will find the following latest regional and national information on the performance of the tourism industry.

If you would like more information please contact the Market Intelligence Team

Key Tourism Facts and Figures

The following facts and figures are for 2009 and based on data gathered from a number of regional and national surveys. These include surveys which track industry performance, which monitor visitor trends and which review current economic and labour market conditions.

Volume and value of tourism trips in the South East for 2009

	Volume	%	Expenditure	%
Domestic overnight trips	18.2 million	8%	£2.6 billion	19%
Inbound overnight trips	4.3 million	2%	£1.8 billion	13%
Tourism day trips	199.5 million	90%	£9.0 billion	68%
Total trips	220.0 million	100%	£13.4 billion	100%

Tourism GVA

Tourism is one of the region’s largest industries, generating over £13 billion per annum in terms of visitor expenditure.

In terms of GVA, which measures the economic contribution to the regional economy of each business sector (net income retained in the region), visitor expenditure makes a direct GVA contribution of 4%. This is equivalent to £7.2 billion when local visitor expenditure on tourism goods and services is included (e.g. local resident expenditure on admission tickets to local museums). Total tourism GVA increases to 8% in the South East, equivalent to £14.6 billion of total regional GVA.

Employment

The tourism industry provides employment for more than 300,000 people in the South East (around 8% of the region’s total workforce). This represents the same volume of jobs found in the region’s manufacturing sector and more than in the regions construction and transport sectors.

Overnight trips

More than 22 million people visited destinations across the South East on an overnight trip. The vast majority (18.2 million) of these were made by UK nationals while around a fifth (4.3 million) were from overseas visitors.

Despite only accounting for 8% of all trips, domestic overnight trips accounted for 19% of total visitor expenditure. Similarly, trips by overseas visitors accounted for only 2% of total trips but 13% of total trip expenditure. This highlights the low volume, high value nature of overnight trips, which overall accounted for 32% of spend yet only 10% of all trips.

Tourism day trips

Tourism day trips accounted for 90% of all trips and generated 68% of total expenditure in 2009. Despite the relatively high volume (199.5 million trips), lower value nature of this market, the £9.0 billion worth of expenditure is by far the largest contribution to the region’s economy.

Reason for visit

The largest proportion (52%) of trips to the South East are for holiday purposes (i.e. visiting purely for pleasure/leisure). A further 25% of all trips are to see friends or relatives and approximately a fifth (19%) are for business purposes. The remaining 4% are for 'other' reasons which include weddings, educational trips and where a trip has multiple purposes.

For further regional tourism facts please read the Facts of Tourism 2008 leaflet below:

TSE Facts of Tourism 2008