Liverpool City Region’s Visitor Economy now supports over 49,000 jobs and generates income in excess of £3.8bn, according to new figures published this month.

The destination now attracts almost 54m day visitors annually, and the number of staying visitors has risen to 4.8m.

Findings are contained in the latest independent research commissioned by the Liverpool City Region Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP).

Headline city region-wide figures show:

– 5% increase in tourism revenues from £3.64bn in 2013 to £3.83bn in 2014.

– 4% increase in staying visitor days from 12.35m in 2013 to 12.84m in 2014

– 2% increase in day visitors from 52.92m in 2013 to 53.89m in 2014

For Liverpool alone:

– 4% increase in tourism revenues from £2.43bn in 2013 to £2.53bn in 2014

– 6% increase in staying visitor days from 5.6m in 2013 to 5.95m in 2014

– 3% increase in staying visitor numbers from 2.22m in 2013 to 2.29m in 2014

These figures are published by the STEAM (Scarborough Tourism Economic Activity Monitor) model which is used throughout the UK tourism industry to measure economic impact of the Visitor Economy.

The International Passenger Survey 2014 was also recently released. This survey only covers overseas staying visitors. The main points from the survey include:

– Liverpool in 2014 saw 608,000 overnight staying trips by overseas visitors – this is a 9% rise from the 2013 figures.

– This is a higher level of growth compared to other larger cities such as London (5%), Birmingham (2%) or Manchester (1%)

– Liverpool in 2014 was the 6th most visited city in the UK by overseas visitors, slipping one place from the 5th placed spot it has occupied for the past few years.

Analysis shows one of the main reasons that Liverpool slipped to 6th place was not due to any slowdown in the city’s visitor market, but through very positive growth in Glasgow’s visitor economy (+22%). This growth was mainly due to a high profile campaign run by VisitScotland with Glasgow, Edinburgh and Inverness all recording double-digit percentage increases, as well as Glasgow hosting the 2014 Commonwealth Games.

Sara Wilde McKeown, Chair of the Visitor Economy Board for the LEP, said:

‘Whilst it’s disappointing that Liverpool’s international visitor ranking has slipped slightly, we should take encouragement from the fact that the sector has recorded strong year on year growth, with 2014 being no exception. We are also working hard with VisitEngland to secure additional funding for the international marketing activity currently enjoyed by other UK destinations including Glasgow through their own national tourism body.”

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