Visitors spending more in Plymouth
Visitors are staying longer in Plymouth and spending more money which is good news for the local economy and businesses.
The annual visitor numbers for 2013, released by Destination Plymouth, show that visitors to the city have increased their length of stay to an average of 3.3 nights and that their average spend has risen from £158 per night to £172 per night.
Overall visitor spend within the city has grown by 7 per cent to £337 million per annum which reflects the city’s visitor strategy to encourage longer stays and increased dwell times from visitors through events and development of cultural activities including sport.
These figures are in line with the wider Devon and South West destinations including Torbay and Exeter who all showed increases in visitor spending despite slight drops in day visitor numbers overall.
Duncan Currall, chairman of Destination Plymouth, confirmed the news that overseas visitors have also risen and said: “Overseas visitors to Plymouth saw a significant rise with 44 per cent increase year on year and increase in spend of 30 per cent which could be due to the ‘after effect’ of the 2012 Olympics with a general lift in overseas visitors which has been seen nationally.
“The Visitor economy is worth over £337 million pounds annually to Plymouth and supports over 8,625 jobs which is 7 per cent of the local economy and this number has grown again in the last year by over 80 full time equivalents within the sector”.
Councillor Tudor Evans, Leader of Plymouth City Council, re-iterated the importance of the tourism sector for the city adding: “The visitor economy is a vital component of Plymouth’s business community bringing over 5 million visitors to the city annually and providing excellent employment opportunities for the local community in leisure, retail, hospitality, accommodation and attractions.
“Many of these jobs provide skills which will be of huge value throughout working life and the City Council is keen to continue to support our local businesses to continue to grow the economy locally as we head towards the Mayflower 400 commemorations in 2020.”
Plymouth is hosting a Tourism and Visitor Economy conference in Delivering Excellence on Thursday 20 November. Being held at The Rhodes@ The Dome from 10am to 4pm Destination Plymouth has arranged twelve key speakers to provide motivational presentations throughout the day including Ken Robinson CBE, Chairman of the Tourism Society Policy and Advocacy Group and Board member of the Tourism Alliance. Visit www.visitplymouth.co.uk/tourism-conference for more information and to purchase tickets.
