ETW Staff – Mumbai
The latest International Passenger Survey figures show visits from India to the UK in 2015 are up eight per cent, from 390,000 to 422,000, setting a new record. Indian visitors spent £ 433 million in Britain last year along with 9.2 million nights.
These figures indicate that India retains its position as Britain’s No 1 BRIC market in terms of visitor volume and among the 20 top source markets for Britain globally. Growing outbound travel trends fuelled by increased flight connectivity into regional Britain has helped India cement its position with growing visitor numbers over 2014.
“India is the top BRIC market for Britain in terms of volume and the year-on-year robust visit figures ensure our way to achieve our 2020 target of 500,000 visits. Our focused strategy for the India market featuring the Bollywood Britain campaign, combined with our trade engagement, targeted consumer engagements and tactical offers with tourism partners will be crucial for us to deliver our tourism targets in 2016-2017,” said Sumathi Ramanathan, director – Asia Pacific, the Middle East and Africa, VisitBritain.
In 2015, VisitBritain India launched ‘Bollywood Britain – Shaandaar’ digital campaign, featuring Northern England, in association with Indian cinema productions and Turkish Airlines, carrying forward their Bollywood Britain showcase in India and engaging Indian travellers through their favourite films and celebrities. Such campaigns throughout the year, coupled with tactical fare follow up campaign, aims to showcase Britain’s countryside and culture, increase regional dispersion into Britain from India, resulting in record visitor figures year-on-year.
Overall, globally inbound visits to the UK were up five per cent over 2014 at 36.1 million, which is a new record. Business visits have grown by seven per cent over 2014 to 8.9 million. Whereas, spending by business visitors reached £ 5.4 billion, a record and an increase of seven per cent.