Visitor economy accelerates economic impact and jobs growth

Birmingham's Christmas Market is a big draw for tourists

The importance of the visitor economy to Birmingham’s momentum has been underlined by new data which shows an additional £1.6bn is being spent in the city than five years ago.

Revenue from tourism hit an all-time high of £6.5bn in 2016, up 5% on 2015 and 33% higher than 2011.

Over the past five years, the rate of growth in economic impact has been twice as fast as the increase in visitor numbers.

The visitor economy now supports 70,365 full-time equivalent jobs – more than 10,000 than in 2011.

Birmingham City Council leader Cllr John Clancy said: “The city continues to attract visitors from across the globe, and this in turn is boosting both the Birmingham and regional economy, creating employment opportunities for local people.”

The number of tourists visiting Birmingham continued its strong growth in 2016, reaching a record high of 39.1m people.

The growth was driven by increasing numbers of tourists from key markets including India, the US and the Netherlands. Visitors from China – another priority market for the city – generated the highest amount of expenditure per head.

The Conservative Party conference, which generated £18.4m, and cricket fixtures at Edgbaston, £17.7m, were part of the growth in 2016.

“Both domestic and international tourism peaked at a record high in 2016,” said Neil Rami, Chief Executive of Marketing Birmingham.

“The strength of Birmingham’s visitor economy is not only boosting the city’s reputation as a leisure destination across the globe, it is also attracting further investment into the city’s transport routes and infrastructure.”

The data has been published by Marketing Birmingham’s research arm the Regional Observatory and tourism research body Global Tourism Solutions.

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