The Scale of the UKTravel and Tourism Industry

The Scale of the UKTravel and Tourism Industry

1. Value of Travel and Tourism to the UKeconomy.

· Travel and tourism is a major industry in this country and is at the

top of the league of invisible earners of foreign currency.Tourism is

one of the largest industries in the UK, worth approximately £75.9

billion.

· GDP is defined as the total value of all goods and services produced

within that territory during a specified period (most commonly, per

year). A common equation for GDP is:

GDP = consumption + investment + government expenditures + exports -

imports.

[IMAGE]

I got this table from: http://www.culture.gov.uk

· This table shows how tourism both domestic and overseas contributes

to GDP.

· It is estimated that tourism directly employs about 8 million people

in the European Union, representing roughly 5% of total employment and

of GDP, and 30% of total external trade in services. Together with

employment and GDP indicated in other sectors, such as transport or

distributive trade, these figures rise up 20 million jobs and to

roughly 12% of GDP.

[IMAGE]In the UK, residents made more than five times as many holiday

visits abroad than overseas residents made to the UK. The graph shows

the number of visits and spending of overseas residents to the UK by

region of residence and of UK residents abroad by their region of

visit. It shows we spend more money abroad than overseas resident's do

here, suggesting we are in debt hugely.

I got this graph from:

http://www.statistics.gov.uk/downloads/theme_transport

· Tourism is called an invisible export and import. An example of

invisible export is if a resident of the USA decides to come to

Britain on holiday, he changes his dollars into sterling in order to

spend money here on hotel accommodation or entertainment, etc. If he

travels from New York to Londonby British Airways, as far as our

economy is concerned, Britain is exporting. In other words, the

visitor is putting US dollars into the British economy.