Record year for tourism in Coventry
Tourism in Coventry enjoyed a record year in 2022 as the value of the visitor economy in the city soared to £750.86m and recovered to surpass pre-pandemic levels.
The visitor economy broke the previous record set in 2019 and saw growth in visitor numbers as 11.05 million people flocked to the city – a one million increase on 2019 and near three million on 2021.
Visitor spend figures have shown a £250m increase on 2021, which were below pre-pandemic levels, but also a 26.3 per cent (£156.5m) increase on 2019.
Key events including Radio 1’s Big Weekend, Coventry’s City of Culture celebrations and the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games have been identified as drivers for the growth – with visitor numbers peaking in May and August.
This has been revealed in an economic impact report on tourism in the city, which was commissioned by destination management organisation, Destination Coventry, in partnership with West Midlands Growth Company.
The report has been formulated by Global Tourism Solutions using its STEAM (Scarborough Tourism Economic Activity Monitor) model.
The number of full-time equivalent jobs supported by the sector has also risen since 2019, from 6,760 to 7,354. The report also revealed there are a further 755 accommodation beds in the pipeline, across eight new developments, to accommodate for overnight stay visitors to the city.
The results showed that overnight spend per visitor has grown to £224.74 and day visitor spend to £46.18, while the percentage of overnight visitors grew by one per cent to 12 per cent.
Coventry has seen percentage growth in visitor numbers of nearly double the wider West Midlands region, and experienced an economic impact boost of 26.3 per cent compared to 7.3 per cent of the area covered by the West Midlands Combined Authority (WMCA).
Coventry is ahead of targets set in the city’s tourism strategy across a range of key metrics, including already exceeding 2023’s target for visitor numbers.
The figures reflect the first full year of operations for Destination Coventry, which includes brands Visit Coventry and Conference Coventry and Warwickshire, after being launched in 2021.
Paul Jones, managing director of Destination Coventry, said: “We didn’t anticipate that the visitor economy would recover this quickly from the pandemic and it’s fantastic to see that Coventry is also significantly out-performing the recovery of the wider WMCA visitor economy.
“While this is a clear increase on 2020 figures, it’s important that we look at the results comparatively with 2019. The pandemic wiped around 60 per cent off our visitor economy in terms of both value and visitor numbers.
“Organisations including the DCMS and Visit Britain forecasted various timescales for recovery, but none suggested that this would be possible in 2022, but that is exactly what we’ve achieved.
“Our visitor economy has not only recovered to pre-pandemic levels, it has grown significantly beyond our record level, which is testament to how tourism is thriving in Coventry.”
Destination Coventry is a collaboration between Coventry City Council and Coventry & Warwickshire Chamber of Commerce.
