DIGEST OF TOURISM STATISTICS · PDF fileWelcome to the latest edition of the Digest of Tourism...
Transcript of DIGEST OF TOURISM STATISTICS · PDF fileWelcome to the latest edition of the Digest of Tourism...
Digest of Tourism Statistics North West Research Liverpool LEP January 2015 Page 1
February 2015
DIGEST OF TOURISM STATISTICS
February 2015
Digest of Tourism Statistics North West Research Liverpool LEP January 2015 Page 2
North West Research, operated by: The Liverpool City Region Local Enterprise Partnership 12 Princes Parade Liverpool, L3 1BG 0151 237 3521
North West Research
This study has been produced by the in-house research team at the Liverpool City Region Local Enterprise Partnership. The team produces numerous key publications for the area, including the annual Digest of Tourism Statistics, in addition to collating key data and managing many regular research projects such as Hotel Occupancy and the Merseyside Visitor Survey. Under the badge of North West Research (formerly known as England‟s Northwest Research Service) the team conducts numerous commercial research projects, with a particular specialism in the visitor economy and event evaluation. Over the last 10 years, North West Research has completed over 250 projects for both public and private sector clients.
Digest of Tourism Statistics North West Research Liverpool LEP January 2015 Page 3
CONTENTS
OVERALL SIZE OF THE VISITOR ECONOMY (STEAM)
1.1 Number of visitors (volume)
1.2 Total spend by visitors (value)
1.3 Jobs supported by the visitor economy
1.4 Change over time
1.5 STEAM Methodology
LOCAL DATA FROM THE VISITOR ECONOMY
2.1 Hotel occupancy
2.2 Hotel stock
2.3 Visits to attractions
2.4 Sport
2.5 Events
2.6 Transport data
VISITOR PROFILE DATA
3.1 Visitor Origin
3.2 Mode of transport
3.3 Purpose of visit
3.4 Demographics
3.5 Group type
NATIONAL DATA
4.1 Occupancy trends
4.2 Visits to attractions trends
4.3 Domestic visitors (GBTS)
4.4 Inbound visitors (IPS)
FORECASTS
5.1 Trends from the Liverpool City Region 3-year Action Plan
ARTICLES
6.1 Business Performance
6.2 Tourism Business Confidence - Nationally
6.3 News
APPENDIX 1: Further reference sources
APPENDIX 2: SIC codes defining the visitor economy
APPENDIX 3: Crude guide to statistical confidence levels
APPENDIX 4: Details of available publications
Digest of Tourism Statistics North West Research Liverpool LEP January 2015 Page 4
Introduction
Welcome to the latest edition of the Digest of Tourism Statistics.
The Digest collates a range of key tourism research sets for the Liverpool City Region and is intended for
all users of tourism data; whether businesses, consultants or students. Each edition sees a presentation
of key tourism statistics – which may change only once during a year – together with the latest data and
any recent research that the tourist board has commissioned or sponsored. There are also links for
further information.
This Digest presents STEAM1 data for 2013 – that is, the estimated visitor numbers recorded by the city
and wider city region. These figures show that in 2013 the number of staying visitors, both for Liverpool
and the City Region, has over taken the record levels achieved in 2008, Liverpool‟s European Capital of
Culture year. Previous year‟s statistics have been updated using 2013 values.
We welcome feedback on this document; if you feel there is some aspect of research it should cover,
please do let us know on [email protected].
The Liverpool City Region
We describe the geography covered by the tourist board as being the “Liverpool City Region” (not to be
confused with the Liverpool Local Authority area or the City Centre). Although there are a number of
definitions, for our purposes this covers the six districts comprising „Merseyside and Halton‟; the same
area as covered by the Liverpool City Region Local Enterprise Partnership:
1 Scarborough Tourism Economic Activity Monitor, the primary method used by the Liverpool LEP and many tourist
boards in the UK to measure the value and volume of tourism.
Size of the Visitor Economy
Digest of Tourism Statistics North West Research Liverpool LEP January 2015 Page 5
Key Facts about the visitor economy in the Liverpool City Region
1. In 2013 there were 58m visitors to the Liverpool City Region.
2. In 2013 the visitor economy was worth £3.6bn to the Liverpool City Region.
3. In 2013 approximately 48,607 jobs were supported by visitor spend.
4. Liverpool is in the top 10 of all UK towns or cities visited by overseas visitors
(and is now placed 5th).
5. Six attractions drew in over half a million visitors in 2014; the Merseyside Maritime Museum,
World Museum Liverpool, Museum of Liverpool, Tate Liverpool, Mersey Ferries and Liverpool
Cathedral
6. Average hotel room occupancy in 2014 was 76%, an increase of 5% since 2013
7. Over 2.5m hotel rooms were sold in the City Region in 2014.
8. 3,981,849 passengers passed through Liverpool John Lennon Airport in 2014
9. Some 656,000 passengers arrived or departed the City Region on one of the three
ferry routes in 2014
10. Liverpool One, the retail and leisure development in the City Centre, recorded a footfall of over
27m people in 2014 – this is an increase on 2013
North West Research
The Digest is produced by the research team at The Liverpool City Region Local Enterprise
Partnership, who collate a wide range of tourism statistics for the Liverpool City Region.
Surveys include Destination Benchmarking, the Airport Gateway study and a quarterly Tourism
Business Performance survey.
Under the banner of the North West Research (formerly England’s North West Research
Service), the team conducts commercial research in a range of different sectors across the
North west, with a particular specialism in the tourism industry and event impact evaluation.
Amongst the research packages we can offer are:
Customer profiling and segmentation
Customer satisfaction studies
Economic impact studies
Gap analysis
Marketing / branding evaluation and assessment
Performance monitoring
For more information, contact [email protected]. .
Size of the Visitor Economy
Digest of Tourism Statistics North West Research Liverpool LEP January 2015 Page 6
1 Overall size of the visitor economy (STEAM)
1.1 Number of visitors (Volume)
In total there were an estimated 58m visitors to the Liverpool City Region in 2013; this
includes 53m day visitors and 5m staying visitors.
For the city of Liverpool itself, this equated to a total of 33m visitors (31m day visitors
and 2m staying visitors).
Thousands of visitors 2013 Liverpool
Liverpool City
Region
Serviced Accommodation 1,293.00 2.237.0
Non-Serviced Accommodation 162.0 261.1
Staying with Friends and Relatives 761.0 2,232.0
Day Visitors 30,583.0 52,918.0
TOTAL 32,799.0 57,648.0
Source: STEAM
30,583.0
7,289.0
6,305.0
8,741.0
Day Visitors (000s)
2,216.0
694.0
778.0
1,042.0
Staying Visitors (000s)
Liverpool
Sefton
Wirral
Halton, Knowsley, St.Helens
Statistical Note:
Although in the charts above we provide data for each district, a certain amount of
caution should be exercised. STEAM is very much an input-based model (see
section 1.5), and whilst a good range of inputs are available for the whole city
region and Liverpool itself, this is less the case at district level.
Hence, although figures for the whole area and Liverpool are statistically robust,
the exact split of visitor numbers and impact amongst the other five districts has a
lower level of statistical reliability.
Size of the Visitor Economy
Digest of Tourism Statistics North West Research Liverpool LEP January 2015 Page 7
1.2 Total spend by visitors (Value)
Total spend by visitors is shown in the table below. Note that this covers both the direct spend by
visitors and the indirect spend resulting (for example, spend within the local economy by
businesses using local goods and services).
In 2013 the visitor economy was estimated as being worth £3.6bn to the Liverpool City
Region - £1.1bn of this coming from staying visitors.
The visitor economy was worth £2.4bn to Liverpool itself.
Economic impact of visitors 2012 (£m) Liverpool
Liverpool City
Region
Serviced Accommodation £437.4 £669.3
Non-Serviced Accommodation £147.2 £192.4
Staying with Friends and Relatives £108.2 £241.1
Day Visitors £1,731.8 £2,537.9
TOTAL £2,424.7 £3,640.9
Source: STEAM
The sectors where spend occurs are detailed below.
Economic impact of visitors 2012 (£m) Liverpool
Liverpool City
Region
Accommodation £125.8 £207.9
Food and drink £496.6 £683.6
Recreation £156.9 £207.0
Shopping £524.1 £863.8
Transport £208.8 £283.6
Total Direct Revenue £1,512.5 £2,246.1
Indirect Expenditure £609.7 £945.5
VAT £302.5 £449.2
TOTAL £2,424.7 £3,640.9
Source: STEAM
£2,424.8
£448.7
£327.8
£439.6
Economic Impact (£m)
Liverpool
Sefton
Wirral
Halton, Knowsley,St.Helens
Size of the Visitor Economy
Digest of Tourism Statistics North West Research Liverpool LEP January 2015 Page 8
1.3 Jobs supported by the visitor economy
In terms of jobs in the visitor economy, there are two broad approaches to estimating this. The
first is to estimate the jobs supported by visitor spend (as adopted by the STEAM model). The
second is to decide which SIC2 codes are applicable to tourism and use survey data from the
Office for National Statistics (ONS) to determine „actual‟ jobs. Neither method is an exact
estimate, as using STEAM is clearly not counting direct jobs, whilst using ONS data does not
count the jobs that may be supported by spend made with sectors outside the SIC codes – nor
does this approach allow for the calculation of indirect jobs being supported.
a) Using STEAM data.
This estimates that there were 48,607 jobs supported by tourism expenditure throughout
the Liverpool City Region – 37,397 of these were direct jobs.
In Liverpool there were 24,691 jobs supported by tourism spend.
Jobs supported by visitor spend (FTE) 2013 Liverpool
Liverpool City
Region
Accommodation 1,601 3,465
Food and drink 9,114 12,545
Recreation 3,495 4,610
Shopping 8,768 14,451
Transport 1,712 2,326
Total Direct Revenue 24,691 37,397
Indirect Expenditure 7,229 11,210
TOTAL 31,920 48,607
Source: STEAM
Source: STEAM
2 Standard Industrial Classification – the list of codes used by ONS to allocate all industries into specific sectors, last
revised in 2007. Typically, many economic activity sectors – such as „tourism‟ do not fit neatly into the codes used by ONS, but are instead assumed to involve a range of sectors and sub-sectors.
24,6914,348
3,644
4,696
Direct Jobs
31,9206,000
4,606
6,081
Total Jobs (Incl. indirect)
Liverpool
Sefton
Wirral
Halton, Knowsley, St.Helens
Size of the Visitor Economy
Digest of Tourism Statistics North West Research Liverpool LEP January 2015 Page 9
b) Using data from ONS
A selection of SIC codes have been chosen as providing the closest fit possible in terms of the
visitor economy sector and these are listed in the appendix.
This suggests that there were 45,075 direct jobs in visitor economy-related SIC codes. As
indicated above though, this is likely to undervalue the jobs connected to the visitor economy; an
easy example to illustrate the point is that this data does not cover jobs in the retail sector, when
STEAM suggest that over a third of visitor spend was made on „shopping‟, thus supporting jobs in
this sector.
Source: Business Register & Employment Survey 2012, ONS.
3 “All employment” includes both employees and self employed such as sole traders.
4 “All employment” includes both employees and self employed such as sole traders.
Jobs in the visitor economy, Liverpool City
Region
All Employment3
2011
All Employment4
2012
Accommodation 6,687 5,422
Food and drink 30,177 31,873
Transport & travel 1,963 3,205
Culture, attractions, entertainment, other 4,745 4,575
TOTAL 43,572 45,075
Size of the Visitor Economy
Digest of Tourism Statistics North West Research Liverpool LEP January 2015 Page 10
1.4 Change over time
Although the headline figures produced by STEAM are useful, it is perhaps even more helpful in
illustrating growth or decline in the visitor economy. In the series of charts below, data is tracked
back to 20055.
Source: STEAM
Both day and staying visitor numbers show an increase from last year; day visitors are at their
highest ever level excluding Capital of Culture year, whilst staying visits across the whole city
region reached a new record level.
In terms of the economic impact of the sector, 2012 figures overtook the record set in the 2008
Capital of Culture year.
Source: STEAM
5 Note: where economic data is traced back to 2005, all figures shown are “at 2012 values”.
22
,12
4
22
,47
6
23
,28
0
31
,70
7
25
,89
0
28
,11
2
28
,51
1
30
,13
8
30
,58
3
44
,19
3
45
,16
7
46
,09
8
55
,42
9
48
,20
9
50
,08
8
50
,50
6
52
,12
8
52
,91
8
0
10,000
20,000
30,000
40,000
50,000
60,000
20
05
20
06
20
07
20
08
20
09
20
10
20
11
20
12
20
13
(00
0s
)
Numbers of day visitors
Liverpool Liverpool City Region
1,4
91
1,6
28
1,7
03
1,9
13
1,7
35
1,9
58
1,9
84
2,1
04
2,2
16
3,9
54
4,1
88
4,2
96
4,4
53
4,1
08
4,4
19
4,4
82
4,6
32
4,7
30
0
500
1,000
1,500
2,000
2,500
3,000
3,500
4,000
4,500
5,000
20
05
20
06
20
07
20
08
20
09
20
10
20
11
20
12
20
13
(00
0s
)
Numbers of staying visitors
Liverpool Liverpool City Region
£3
86
.0m
£4
06
.0m
£4
34
.0m
£4
90
.0m
£4
92
.0m
£5
38
.0m
£5
33
.0m
£5
99
.0m
£.6
93
.0m
£1
,16
9.0
m
£1
,20
7.0
m
£1
,25
0.0
m
£1
,67
3.0
m
£1
,36
6.0
m
£1
,48
3.0
m
£1
,50
4.0
m
£1
,65
2.0
m
£1
.73
2.0
m
£m
£500m
£1,000m
£1,500m
£2,000m
£2,500m
20
05
20
06
20
07
20
08
20
09
20
10
20
11
20
12
20
13
Economic impact - Liverpool
Staying visitors Day visitors
£7
90
.0m
£8
26
.0m
£8
63
.0m
£8
92
.0m
£8
59
.0m
£9
06
.0m
£8
98
.0m
£9
92
.0m
£1
.10
2.0
m
£1
,99
1.0
m
£2
,06
3.0
m
£2
,09
7.0
m
£2
,47
9.0
m
£2
,11
9.0
m
£2
,22
5.0
m
£2
,24
5.0
m
£2
,42
1.0
m
£2
.53
8.0
m
£m
£500m
£1,000m
£1,500m
£2,000m
£2,500m
£3,000m
£3,500m
£4,000m
20
05
20
06
20
07
20
08
20
09
20
10
20
11
20
12
20
13
Economic impact - Whole City Region
Staying visitors Day visitors
Size of the Visitor Economy
Digest of Tourism Statistics North West Research Liverpool LEP January 2015 Page 11
1.5 STEAM Methodology
To estimate the volume and value of tourism, the Liverpool City Region uses the STEAM6 model
– this model is widely (though not universally) used across the UK, including other tourist boards
in North West England. STEAM is owned and operated by Global Tourism Solutions (UK) Ltd.
STEAM relies on local-level data to drive the estimates, principally7:
o Accommodation stock
o Local occupancy surveys
o Visits to attractions / events
o Visits to Tourist Information Centres
o Hotel Occupancy in the City Region
A key component of the way in which STEAM works is its definition of „day visitors‟; this is
defined as a person travelling to a district other than that in which they live, for a non-routine
purpose, with a stay of over 3 hours. Thus, someone making a trip to Southport Pier from
Liverpool could be classed as a day visitor, but not someone making a similar trip who lived in
Formby. The important note to make here is that the number of the day visits recorded by
STEAM for the Liverpool City Region will contain a certain amount of intra-city region tourism.
Local data for the preceding year is gathered by the research team in January-March each year.
This data is passed to Global Tourism Solutions, with reports typically available by mid-year.
Currently the most recently available data is that for 2013.
Note:
GTS-UK has utilised research conducted on behalf of the Northwest Regional Development
Agency (NWDA) in 2007/2009 to update the initial baseline estimates which the model has
used – much of this information having not previously been available. This change has
resulted in significant alterations to data and this affects not just the Liverpool City Region
but also the whole of the Northwest. Therefore, the figures used within this Digest replace
completely any STEAM figures from 2009 or before.
For more guidance on this change (if required), please contact the research team:
6 Scarborough Tourism Economic Activity Monitor – so-called because Scarborough was the first UK location where
the model was applied. 7 Notice that STEAM uses a further range of inputs, although the components which have the biggest influence on
the model are listed here.
Local Data
Digest of Tourism Statistics North West Research Liverpool LEP January 2015 Page 12
2 Local data from the Visitor Economy
2.1 Hotel occupancy
Hotel occupancy data is drawn from the STR Global®8. it includes a number of establishments
based in the districts.
Room occupancy,
Liverpool City Region 2012
2013
2014
Weekday average (Mo-Th) 68.9% 69.9% 73.1%
Weekend average (Fr-Sa) 84.9% 83.6% 85.6%
Sunday 51.9% 53.6% 58.2%
Total average 68.8% 71.2% 75.5%
SOURCE: STR GLOBAL, LTD. REPUBLICATION OR OTHER RE-USE OF THIS DATA WITHOUT THE EXPRESS
WRITTEN PERMISSION OF STR GLOBAL IS STRICTLY PROHIBITED
In 2013 room occupancy in the city region averaged 76%, an increase of 5% since 2013.
Below, the latest occupancy data is compared with earlier years.
SOURCE: STR GLOBAL, LTD. REPUBLICATION OR OTHER RE-USE OF THIS DATA WITHOUT THE EXPRESS
WRITTEN PERMISSION OF STR GLOBAL IS STRICTLY PROHIBITED
8 STR Global is a tool run by Smith Travel Research Global that allows hotel and tourism managers to see an up-to-
date picture of room occupancy and availability in their city. Please note change over from LJ forecaster to STR Global occurred in April 2013
55
.6%
63
.8%
67
.1%
70
.9%
70
.1%
72
.8%
72
.4%
71
.9%
74
.4%
75
.0%
73
.5%
57
.6%
52
.1%
70
.0%
69
.5%
69
.1%
74
.8%
75
.1%
75
.6%
76
.6%
74
.6%
79
.1%
74
.5%
62
.9%
55
.2%
73
.4%
74
.3%
78
.7%
75
.9%
78
.6%
83
.6%
79
.9%
77
.9%
79
.9%
78
.1%
69
.9%
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
90%
Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
Occupancy monthly tends
2012 2013 2014
Local Data
Digest of Tourism Statistics North West Research Liverpool LEP January 2015 Page 13
Most establishments also complete a section of the STR Global dealing with revenue analysis.
This gives the Average Daily Rate (ADR) and Revenue Per Available Rooms (RevPAR) – the
latter tending to be the preferred measure in terms of economic performance.
Room revenue,
Liverpool City Region 2012 2013
2014
ADR weekday average (Mo-Th) £52.54 £53.02 £55.23
ADR weekend average (Fr-Sa) £66.56 £66.17 £73.55
ADR average £56.66 £57.09 £61.13
REVPAR weekday average (Mo-Th) £36.24 £35.29 £41.70
REVPAR weekend average (Fr-Sa) £57.17 £55.09 £61.90
REVPAR average £39.09 £41.00 £46.30
SOURCE: STR GLOBAL, LTD. REPUBLICATION OR OTHER RE-USE OF THIS DATA WITHOUT THE EXPRESS WRITTEN
PERMISSION OF STR GLOBAL IS STRICTLY PROHIBITED
The average room yield (RevPAR) in the city region in 2014 was £46.30, an increase
since 2013
SOURCE: STR GLOBAL, LTD. REPUBLICATION OR OTHER RE-USE OF THIS DATA WITHOUT THE EXPRESS
WRITTEN PERMISSION OF STR GLOBAL IS STRICTLY PROHIBITED
All hotel performance – both in terms of occupancy levels and yield – needs to be viewed in the
light of the hotel room stock in the city (see section 2.2).
£2
8.9
1
£3
5.2
7
£3
8.8
9
£4
4.3
7
£3
9.5
0
£4
1.1
8
£3
8.9
4
£3
9.2
7
£4
3.7
1
£4
3.4
3
£4
4.0
5
£3
1.6
0
£2
6.1
4
£3
8.0
8
£3
9.8
2
£4
6.8
0
£4
2.6
0
£4
3.6
0
£4
0.9
0
£4
2.7
0
£4
2.9
0
£4
8.1
0
£4
4.9
0
£3
5.4
0
£2
9.4
0
£4
2.0
0
£4
4.4
0
£5
1.1
0
£4
4.9
0
£4
6.9
0
£5
6.6
0
£4
6.3
0
£4
8.2
0
£5
1.1
1
£5
1.6
0
£4
3.0
5
£0
£10
£20
£30
£40
£50
£60
Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
Room yield monthly tends
2012 2013 2014
Local Data
Digest of Tourism Statistics North West Research Liverpool LEP January 2015 Page 14
In the table below, known city centre hotel stock is overlaid by the occupancy levels shown in the
STR Global to produce an estimate of the actual number of hotel rooms that have been sold:
Source: Tourist board room stock data
This indicates a growth in the numbers of visitors staying in hotels in the city and in 2014
1 million 649 thousand rooms were sold in the city centre. This is higher than in any previous
year (including Capital of Culture year) and shows Liverpool‟s ongoing growth as a destination.
Importantly, besides the attractiveness of the destination, this is also a product of increasing
stock levels; below we see the monthly results, with each month indicating record numbers of
rooms being sold on the year before.
Source: STR Global / Tourist board room stock data
9 Figures rounded to the nearest 000.
81
,96
4.8
7
92
,29
5.6
8
10
1,4
60
.12
10
2,5
30
.08
10
4,0
65
.24
10
5,3
21
.28
11
0,2
05
.88
10
8,4
84
.64
11
1,0
00
.00
11
8,0
00
.00
11
4,0
00
.00
94
,00
0.0
0
75
,00
0
95
,00
0
10
8,0
00
11
4,0
00
12
0,0
00
11
7,0
00
12
0,0
00
12
0,0
00
11
5,0
00
12
4,0
00
11
5,0
00
10
3,0
00
91
,00
0
11
2,0
00
12
6,0
00
13
6,0
00
13
7,0
00
14
7,0
00
15
8,0
00
15
1,0
00
14
5,0
00
15
7,0
00
15
0,0
00
13
9,0
00
Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
City Centre rooms sold
2012 2013 2014
Hotel rooms sold9
Liverpool
City Centre
2004 720,000
2005 705,000
2006 694,000
2007 725,000
2008 910,000
2009 897,000
2010 1,046,000
2012 1,244,000
2013 1,326,936
2014 1,649,634
Local Data
Digest of Tourism Statistics North West Research Liverpool LEP January 2015 Page 15
2.2 Hotel stock
Hotel room stock is (as seen in 2.1) an important component behind performance; in the charts
below we show growth both in the room stock and the number of establishments. Note that in
order to simplify this visually, we present the data split between Liverpool City Centre and
elsewhere in the city region (including the Liverpool suburbs).
Source: Tourist board room stock data
Figures for the City Centre include the most recent openings:
o The 153 room Titanic Hotel on Stanley Dock (opened May 2014)
o The 116 room Aloft on North John Street (opened mid 2014)
o The 67 room Signature, Albion House (April 2014)
o The 87 room Doubletree by Hilton, Sir Thomas Street (March 2014)
2013 data will include:
o The 125 room Travelodge on Exchange St East (opened March 2013)
o The 122 room Ibis Styles on Dale Street (opened October 2013)
o The 129 room Adagio at Lewis‟ Building (opened April 2013)
o The 51 room The Richmond, Hatton Garden (opened April 2013)
o The 12 room (sleeps111) Signature Hotel (opened April 2013)
o The 35 room Hoax Liverpool, Stanley Street (opened July 2013)
o The 92 room Z Hotel (opened May 2013)
o The 14 room Epic aparthotel (sleeps 50+)
and outside the city centre:
o The 25 room Lorne Hotel, Wirral
o The 101 room Travelodge, Southport
3,4
20
3,9
20
4,2
18
4,5
24
4,8
67
5,3
04
5,9
38
3,6
08
4,0
56
4,2
92
4,5
17
4,5
47
4,6
78
4,6
73
0
1,000
2,000
3,000
4,000
5,000
6,000
7,000
20
08
20
09
20
10
20
11
20
12
20
13
20
14
Hotel room stock
Liverpool City Centre Elsewhere City Region
30
34
37
39
41
47
53
12
2
12
6
13
0
13
4
17
6
18
4
19
0
0
20
40
60
80
100
120
140
160
180
200
20
08
20
09
20
10
20
11
20
12
20
13
20
14
Hotel establishments
Liverpool City Centre Elsewhere City Region
Local Data
Digest of Tourism Statistics North West Research Liverpool LEP January 2015 Page 16
2.3 Visits to Attractions
In the table below, we show the top attractions in the Liverpool City Region in 2014; this shows
the diverse range of attractions, both free and paid, that the city region offers. It should be noted
that this excludes some major attractions in the area where it is not possible to obtain accurate
counts, such as the Albert Dock, Wirral Coastal Park and Another Place.
Note that we can only show those attractions who respond to our annual attractions survey and
who permit us to show their data.
Top “free” attractions
Attraction Type District
Attendance 2014
1 Bluecoat Museum / gallery Liverpool 743,814
2 Museum of Liverpool Museum / gallery Liverpool 707,405
3 Merseyside Maritime Museum Museum / gallery Liverpool 631,711
4 World Museum Liverpool Museum / gallery Liverpool 610,785
5 Tate Liverpool Museum / gallery Liverpool 540,885
6 Liverpool Cathedral Place of worship Liverpool 527,741
7 International Slavery Museum Museum / gallery Liverpool 372,316
8 Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral Place of worship Liverpool 318,347
9 National Trust, Formby Nature / wildlife / zoo Sefton 267,375&
10 Walker Art Gallery Museum / gallery Liverpool 252,042
11 Lady Lever Art Gallery Museum / gallery Wirral 221,663
12 Sudley House Historic Property Liverpool 55,010
13 Williamson Art Gallery & Museum Museum / gallery Wirral 36,144
14 Marshside RSPB Wildlife Sefton 20,365
15 Knowsley Hall Historic Property Knowsley 15,020
Source: Tourist board annual Visitor Attractions Survey
Top “paid” attractions
Attraction Type District
Attendance 2014
1 Mersey Ferries Other Liverpool
&Wirral 611,028
2 Echo Arena Liverpool Entertainment Liverpool 521,234
3 Knowsley Safari Park Nature / wildlife / zoo Knowsley 503,678
4 Beatles Story Museum / gallery Liverpool 249,734
5 Aintree Racecourse Sporting venue Liverpool 203,042
6 Liverpool Football Club Museum & Tour Museum Liverpool 185,466
7 Liverpool Philharmonic Entertainment Liverpool 178,715
8 Floral Pavilion Entertainment Wirral 177,500
9 Haydock Park Racecourse Sporting venue St Helens 170,717
10 Ness Botanic Gardens Gardens Wirral 101,701$
11 World of Glass Visitor Centre St Helens 60.891
12 Spaceport Other Wirral 48,910
13 Norton Priory Historic Property Halton 34,242!
14 Port Sunlight Museum Museum / gallery Wirral 32,980!
15 U-Boat Story Museum Wirral 25,916
Source: Tourist board annual Visitor Attractions Survey
! 2013 figures
& 2012 figures
* 2010 figures
@ 2009 figures
# 2008 figures
Local Data
Digest of Tourism Statistics North West Research Liverpool LEP January 2015 Page 17
2.4 Sport
As well as visitor attractions, „sport‟ is a key driver behind visits to the city region; the following
are the attendance figures recorded at key venues for the most recent sporting year10
.
Venue District Attendance
1 Liverpool FC Liverpool 849,513
2 Everton FC Liverpool 803,413
3 St.Helens Saints RLFC St.Helens 190,914
4 Aintree Racecourse Liverpool 169,362
5 Haydock Park Racecourse St.Helens 177,575
6 Tranmere Rovers FC Wirral 131,541
7 Widnes Vikings RLFC Halton 74,751
Source: Media / publicity
10
For racecourses this is a calendar year; for others this relates to the 2013/14 sport season.
Local Data
Digest of Tourism Statistics North West Research Liverpool LEP January 2015 Page 18
2.5 Events
In addition to the list of top attractions we also record the top 10 free and paid events. Where
local authorities or event organisers have published a figure we use this; other than that, use is
made of figures quoted in the press.
A higher degree of reliability is associated with visitor numbers at paid events, as the ticketed
data provides a robust measure. Again, as with attractions, we can only show those events
where organisers respond to our request for figures and permit us to publish their data.
Top “free” events 2014
Event District Attendance
1 Giants spectacular Liverpool 1.0m
2 Biennial Liverpool 677,000
3 Battle of Atlantic Liverpool 300,000!
4 Mersey River Festival Liverpool 200,000
5 International Music Festival11
Liverpool 100,000
6 Brazilica Liverpool 100,000
7 Africa Oye Liverpool 75,000
8 Southport Food & Drink Sefton 28,000!
9 Hoylake RNLI Open Day Wirral 8,000
10 Tour of Britain – Start Knowsley 2,500
Source: Media / publicity
Top “paid” events 2014
Event District Attendance 1 Open Golf Championship Wirral 203,000
2 Grand National Liverpool 139,000
3 Southport Flower Show Sefton 90,000
4 Southport Air Show Sefton 67,500
5 Creamfields Halton 60,000
6 Brouhaha Liverpool 50,000
7 Liverpool Food and Drink Festival Liverpool 45,000
8 Liverpool International Tennis Tournament Liverpool 20,000
9 Port Sunlight Festival Wirral 18,000
10 Rock N Roll Marathon Liverpool 7,00012
Source: Media / publicity
! 2013 figures
11 This replaces the Mathew Street Festival 12
Number of runners
Local Data
Digest of Tourism Statistics North West Research Liverpool LEP January 2015 Page 19
2.6 Transport data
a) Passenger levels LJLA
A range of airlines provide routes out of Liverpool John Lennon Airport (LJLA) including the
scheduled operators EasyJet, FlyBE, Ryanair and Wizz Air.
Source: CAA Airport Statistics
During 2014 4.0m passengers travelled through LJLA; this is a slight downturn on figures
recorded during the previous 2 years. However, there are a number of considerations to be taken
into account here:
The above data represents both inbound13
and outbound14
travellers; there being no
contiguous source disaggregating changing tourism levels from (potentially lower)
domestic outbound travellers.
13
“Inbound” = Overseas visitors to the UK. 14
“Outbound” = UK nationals travelling overseas.
4,9
71
,36
1
5,5
17
,66
7
5,4
02
,98
2
4,9
42
,98
1
5,0
08
,45
5
5,2
47
,10
9
4,4
61
,44
3
4,1
87
,45
7
3,9
81
,84
9
0
1,000,000
2,000,000
3,000,000
4,000,000
5,000,000
6,000,000
20
06
20
07
20
08
20
09
20
10
20
11
20
12
20
13
20
14
LJLA passenger numbers
0
50
100
150
200
250
300
20
00
20
01
20
02
20
03
20
04
20
05
20
06
20
07
20
08
20
09
20
10
20
11
20
12
Ch
an
ge
(in
de
xe
d t
o 2
00
0)
Passenger levels
ALL UK airports LJLA
Local Data
Digest of Tourism Statistics North West Research Liverpool LEP January 2015 Page 20
Source: CAA Airport Statistics
The change on a monthly basis can be seen above; whilst below we show in the year to date the
number of passengers by route of destination/origin. Again do bear in mind that this covers both
inbound and outbound travellers, and is not necessarily an indication of the strength of different
visitor markets.
Source: CAA Airport Statistics
30
9,0
00
34
2,0
00
39
3,0
00
48
6,0
00
48
5,0
00
48
6,0
00
55
1,0
00
57
5,0
00
51
2,0
00
48
8,0
00
30
2,0
00
31
7,0
00
29
5,0
00
31
1,0
00
35
2,0
00
39
0,0
00
38
9,0
00
41
6,0
00
45
4,0
00
48
5,0
00
43
3,0
00
40
7,0
00
26
7,0
00
26
6,0
00
24
1,0
00
25
5,0
00
31
4,0
00
37
0,0
00
39
7,0
00
38
7,0
00
42
8,0
00
46
7,0
00
40
2,0
00
39
4,0
00
26
0,0
00
27
1,0
00
25
3,0
00
26
3,0
00
29
7,0
00
34
9,0
00
37
2,0
00
36
0,0
00
39
6,0
00
43
3,0
00
37
1,0
00
36
1,0
00
26
0,0
00
26
7,0
00
Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
Monthly Terminal Pax, LJLA
2011 2012 2013 2014
948,770
469,885
329,601
315,979
227,106
204,163
176,363
136,462
77,118
51,856
43,239
41,051
35,918
35,578
32,727
30,705
16,466
9,360
4,725
730
355
129
Spain
Eire
Poland
France
Portugal
Netherlands
Canary Islands
Switzerland
Germany
Italy
Slovak Republic
Greece
Lithuania
Malta
Cyprus
Norway
Turkey
Austria
Denmark
Bulgaria
Sweden
Belgium
Passengers - International Route analysis
Local Data
Digest of Tourism Statistics North West Research Liverpool LEP January 2015 Page 21
b) Irish Sea Ferry passengers
Until recently, four passenger routes were operated from the Liverpool City Region:
Liverpool – Isle of Man (Steam Packet)
Liverpool – Dublin (P&O)
Birkenhead – Dublin (Norfolkline DFDS)
Birkenhead – Belfast (Norfolkline DFDS Stena)
In 2010, DFDS acquired Norfolkline; unfortunately, despite strong market potential DFDS
disposed of the Irish Sea part of the Norfolkline group within a year – this decision may
particularly have been influenced by the condition of the Irish economy. The Belfast link was sold
to Stena and the Dublin link closed as at January 2012. Stena have since undertaken significant
refurbishment of the ships on their „new‟ Belfast link, with strong marketing promotion.
Source: Sea Passenger Statistics, DfT
In 2014, some 656,000 passengers travelled to and from Liverpool by one of the three
ferry routes with a significantly high increase of traffic on the Liverpool – Belfast route.
16
1.7
17
1.0
26
5.0
17
3.3
18
7.2
29
0.0
17
2.1
18
9.9
27
8.8
17
1.0
18
7.1
27
6.0
18
9.5
22
1.2
27
8.4
11
7.5
24
5.5
25
9.3
12
1.3
20
6.6
27
0.3
11
9.5
24
0.7
26
7.6
12
3.5
26
7.1
26
5.2
0
50
100
150
200
250
300
350
Liverpool - Dublin Liverpool - Belfast Liverpool - Douglas
(00
0s
Pa
x)
Liverpool Sea Passengers
2006
2007
2008
2009
2010
2011
2012
2013
2014
(Birkenhead)
Local Data
Digest of Tourism Statistics North West Research Liverpool LEP January 2015 Page 22
c) Cruise Ship Passengers
Since Liverpool‟s Cruise Terminal was inaugurated in September 2007, allowing vessels to berth
alongside the waterfront (rather than mid-river or in the North Docks), the cruise market has
shown significant growth. In 2012 those which are on a cruise originating or terminating in
Liverpool were permitted to this facility for the first time, having previously been located in the
Langton Dock; temporary terminal check-in and baggage facilities have been constructed on
adjoining land.
The charts below show both cruise ship calls and originating/terminating cruises; both in terms of
passenger numbers15
and vessel trips.
Source: Port / operator publicity
In 2015 it is estimated that there would be potentially 82,282 passengers on cruise ships
visiting the city and an estimated 18,156 on cruise ships departing the city.
The estimated number of passengers on „cruise calls‟ at the terminal in 2015 is
significantly higher on last year, though broadly comparable.
2015 saw a slight decrease in cruises/pax originating or terminating in the city. Partially
this is due to the ability to now use the Liverpool Cruise Terminal (operators had
expressed dissatisfaction with the location, facilities and the need to „lock in and out‟ at
the Langton Dock terminal, especially in comparison with the Liverpool Cruise Terminal).
15
Passengers shown is for the “potential pax”, i.e., if each ship were operating at capacity, (based on the listed passenger capacity on the operators‟ websites) and hence may not fully reflect actual passenger numbers.
24
,38
4
10
,99
026
,42
2
10
,16
026
,47
0
8,4
00
23
,64
4
9,6
00
41
,67
7
9,6
80
53
,75
7
18
,51
0
82,282
18
,15
6
0
10,000
20,000
30,000
40,000
50,000
60,000
70,000
80,000
90,000
Cruise calls Originating / terminating cruises
Cruise Passengers
2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015
15
25
17
12
15
10
15
12
34
11
43
21
54
24
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
Cruise calls Originating / terminating cruises
Vessel trips
2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015
Local Data
Digest of Tourism Statistics North West Research Liverpool LEP January 2015 Page 23
d) Rail Passengers
Data on rail passengers is hard to come by; despite rail operation in the UK being operated
through government-supported franchises, less information is available than in the private
sectors of shipping and aviation.
Possibly the only usable data comes from the Rail Regulator‟s monitor of station usage. This only
covers total passengers not just visitors. Nevertheless we show on the left the top UK stations16
compared to other major UK cities and on the right usage levels of other key stations17
within the
Liverpool City Region.
Most recent data comes from the 2013-14 financial year.
Key destinations Exits
Selected key city
region stations Exits
Birmingham New St 17,374,492 Liverpool Central
7,310,792
Leeds 13,864,727 Moorfields 3,270,618
Glasgow Central 13,576,311 Liverpool James
Street
1,539,114
Manchester Piccadilly 12,238,050 Liverpool South
Parkway
892,722
Edinburgh 10,003,169 Waterloo 738,302
Brighton 8,470,582 Formby 641,358
Liverpool Lime St 7,118,395 St.Helens Central 548,422
Cardiff Central 5,869,815 New Brighton 455,400
Bristol Temple Meads 4,761,420 Port Sunlight
308,316
Source: Station usage data, Office of the Rail Regulator.
16
Excluding London & key commuter terminals 17
Stations are selected based on their central locations or proximity to key visitor attractions.
Statistical note:
As data is drawn from ticket sales data from the rail industry, trips
undertaken using multi-modal ticket in former metropolitan areas (such
as “Merseyside”) are estimated and included within these figures.
Visitor Profile
Digest of Tourism Statistics North West Research Liverpool LEP January 2015 Page 24
3 Visitor Profile data
A number of major surveys are conducted periodically by The Liverpool LEP, which aids the
tourism intelligence of the area. These include the Liverpool City Region Visitor Survey18
and the
Destination Survey19
. Within this section we present key data from both – be aware the former
represents the profile of visitors to the whole area, the latter just that of visitors to the city centre.
3.1 Visitor origin
a) Day Visitors
Visitors to the
whole City Region
% of day
visitors
Visitors to
Liverpool City Centre
% of day
visitors
City Region residents 36% City Region residents 40%
Cheshire 13% Cheshire 16%
Greater Manchester 16% Greater Manchester 14%
Lancashire 13% Lancashire 9%
Cumbria <1% Cumbria 1%
Northeast <1% Northeast 3%
Yorkshire 5% Yorkshire 4%
East Midlands 3% East Midlands 3%
West Midlands 8% West Midlands 6%
London & Southeast 2% London & Southeast 2%
Southwest <1% Southwest 1%
Wales 4% Wales 4%
Scotland 1% Scotland 1%
Northern Ireland <1% Northern Ireland <1%
18
The Merseyside Visitor Survey is conducted every 5 years. Latest data is for 2010. 19
The Liverpool Destination Survey is conducted on alternate years. Latest data is for 2014
Visitor Profile
Digest of Tourism Statistics North West Research Liverpool LEP January 2015 Page 25
Besides those living elsewhere in the city region, there were strong levels of day visits from
Lancashire and Cheshire. To some extent these form part of the City Region‟s natural hinterland.
Other major day visitor markets included Greater Manchester and Yorkshire (the latter thanks in
part to good Trans-Pennine links); but we also see relatively high levels of day visitors from the
West Midlands.
For Wales, day visitors tend to be a reflection of visitors from the North Wales area; this
extending as far as Gwynedd, rather than the whole principality.
As indicated in the previous Digest, the timings now offered on the upgraded West Coast Main
Line mean that there were day visitors from Greater London evident too.
28%37% 39%
26% 30%
44%
64%
32% 31% 59% 56% 32%
8%
31% 29%
15% 14%24%
1% 1%
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
90%
100%
Ha
lto
n
Kn
ow
sle
y
Liv
erp
oo
l
Se
fto
n
St.
He
len
s
Wirra
l
Day Visitor Origins - Summary
Overseas
Further afield UK
Elsewhere NW
Elsewhere City Region
Visitor Profile
Digest of Tourism Statistics North West Research Liverpool LEP January 2015 Page 26
b) Staying Visitors
Visitors to the
whole City Region
% of
staying
visitors
Visitors to
Liverpool City Centre
% of
staying
visitors
City Region residents 6% City Region residents 2%
Cheshire 5% Cheshire 1%
Greater Manchester 3% Greater Manchester 2%
Lancashire 5% Lancashire 3%
Cumbria <1% Cumbria 1%
Northeast 5% Northeast 3%
Yorkshire 7% Yorkshire 11%
East Midlands 9% East Midlands 4%
West Midlands 8% West Midlands 7%
London & Southeast 17% London & Southeast 9%
Southwest 4% Southwest 4%
Wales 2% Wales 5%
Scotland 3% Scotland 4%
Northern Ireland 5% Northern Ireland 2%
Overseas 22% Overseas 38%
Visitor Profile
Digest of Tourism Statistics North West Research Liverpool LEP January 2015 Page 27
There is a relatively low level of staying visitors from the Southwest, Northeast or Scotland; this
may owe much to relatively poor direct transport links from these locations.
There is strong evidence of London & the South East being important markets; in total, over a
fifth of all staying visitors to Liverpool (21%) came from these areas. As evidence of a growing
market, this was 15% in 2006 (more information on growth / decline by geography can be found
in the previous Digest).
Notice that overseas visitors form a very important part of the staying visitor market in Liverpool;
less so elsewhere in the city region.
c) Key Overseas Markets
As evidenced above, overseas markets form a
very important part of the inbound visitor market
for Liverpool.
Data from our Destination Survey study
suggests that the following were the top origins
visiting Liverpool itself in 2014. Although
Australia may be a surprise being placed so
high on this list, data from Visit Britain has
confirmed something of a boost for visits to the
UK from that location during recent periods,
partially a result of beneficial economy
performance / exchange rates.
9%1% 2%
39%
3%
50%
18%
4%
15%
8%
13%
50%
64%
52%
71%
31%
69%
9%
43%
12%23%
15%
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
90%
100%
Ha
lto
n
Kn
ow
sle
y
Liv
erp
oo
l
Se
fto
n
St.
He
len
s
Wirra
l
Staying Visitor Origins - Summary
Overseas
Further afield UK
Elsewhere NW
Elsewhere City Region
% of all staying visitors
Eire 4%
USA 3%
Australia 3%
Germany 2%
Spain 3%
Netherland 1%
France 3%
Switzerland 1%
Austria 1%
Italy 2%
Poland 2%
New Zealand 1%
Japan 1%
Canada 1%
Norway <1%
Visitor Profile
Digest of Tourism Statistics North West Research The Liverpool LEP January 2015 Page 28
3.2 Mode of transport
Transport mode is an important aspect of understanding the visitor market. On the one hand, it
may reflect where good linkages exist, with the potential for further visit generation; on the other
hand, coupled with visitor origin, it may reveal where markets are underperforming due to lower
than ideal levels of connectivity. This is especially important in the current climate, where twin
pressures of costs and environmental concerns influence modal choice. Below we summarise
transport choices both for day and staying visitors from key markets.
a) Modal Choice: Day Visitors
b) Modal Choice: Staying Visitors
Note: percentages may add up to more than 100% as more than one mode of transport may have been
involved in the trip. Also note that ‟ferry‟ covers both Mersey Ferry and Irish Sea routes, and that whilst
„plane‟ may relate to Liverpool John Lennon Airport, it may also reflect on other UK gateways.
39%
78% 72% 67%
47%
73% 71%
40%
34%
15%9% 22%
23%
6% 11%
50%
21%14%
6%
15%10%
15% 12% 14% 10%4%
Within LCR Cheshire Lancs. Greater Manchester
West Midlands
Yorks N Wales London & Southeast
Car/van/etc Train Scheduled Bus / Coach
Coach tour / Private hire Ferry Plane
Other
57% 49%
70%61% 65%
23%
20% 29%
16%17% 5%
11%
24%
9% 10%8%
6%10%
5%
10%
10% 14%10%
7%
42%
5%
55%40%
10%10%
6%
11%
NW England / N Wales
London & SE Midlands Yorks & NE SW England & S Wales
Ireland Overseas
Car/van/etc Train Scheduled Bus / Coach
Coach tour / Private hire Ferry Plane
Other
Visitor Profile
Digest of Tourism Statistics North West Research The Liverpool LEP January 2015 Page 29
3.3 Purpose of visit
The data shows the key reasons behind the visit to the area. Note that this data shows the main
reasons; the survey length unfortunately means that „contributory‟ reasons were not asked. It is
worth noting that due to the survey methodology, the data shown probably „undervalues‟ the level
of business and golf/sporting trips to the city region.
Notice also that especially in the case of St.Helens, “Events” includes sporting events, such as
horse racing at Haydock Park.
a) Purpose: Day Visitors
Halton Knowsley Liverpool
Attractions 89%
VFR 3%
Explore area 3%
Attractions 82%
Events 14%
VFR 2%
Explore area 2%
Sightseeing 41%
Shopping 22%
VFR 13%
Attractions 5%
Events 5%
Sefton St.Helens Wirral
Explore area 68%
Attractions 15%
Shopping 8%
Events 4%
VFR 3%
Attractions 63%
Events 20%
Shopping 10%
VFR 5%
Explore area 2%
Attractions 46%
Explore area 45%
VFR 6%
Events 4%
Shopping 1%
b) Purpose: Staying Visitors
Halton Knowsley Liverpool
VFR 50%
Attractions 50%
Attractions 92%
VFR 8%
Sightseeing 60%
VFR 13%
Attractions 9%
Events 7%
Conferences 2%
Sefton St.Helens Wirral
Explore area 66%
VFR 15%
Events 9%
Attractions 6%
Golf 2%
VFR 60%
Events 20%
Attractions 7%
Shopping 7%
Attractions 40%
Explore area 27%
VFR 27%
Events 2%
Cycling 2%
Visitor Profile
Digest of Tourism Statistics North West Research The Liverpool LEP January 2015 Page 30
3.4 Visitor Demographics
In terms of the visitor age / gender composition, the data comes from asking about both the
respondent and all the people in the group they were visiting the Liverpool City Region with.
a) Day visitors
Visitors to the
whole City Region
% of day
visitors
Visitors to
Liverpool City Centre
% of day
visitors
Children (<16) 31% Children (<16) 11%
16-24 6% 16-24 16%
25-44 28% 25-44 21%
45-64 21% 45-64 28%
65+ 15% 65+ 24%
The proportion of children amongst day visitors was relatively high (31% across the whole city
region, 11% in Liverpool City Centre) – showing especially the importance of the family market,
although clearly this is of greater significance to parts of the region outside the city centre.
Note that there was a higher level of young adults (aged 16-24 – 16%) in the city centre.
The city centre day visitor profile also showed a much higher female bias and a greater presence
in the age 45-64 groups.
15.7%
2.4%
4.3%
8.0%
5.9%
4.3%
6.7%
15.3%
3.3%
6.2%
9.1%
5.6%
5.3%
7.9%
0-15
16-24
25-34
35-44
45-54
55-64
65+
Male Female
4.2%
4.0%
4.2%
2.7%
4.7%
6.7%
11.6%
6.9%
11.6%
7.1%
7.1%
6.2%
10.2%
12.7%
0-15
16-24
25-34
35-44
45-54
55-64
65+
Male Female
Visitor Profile
Digest of Tourism Statistics North West Research The Liverpool LEP January 2015 Page 31
b) Staying visitors
Visitors to the
whole City Region
% of day
visitors
Visitors to
Liverpool City Centre
% of day
visitors
Children (<16) 14% Children (<16) 6%
16-24 6% 16-24 16%
25-44 32% 25-44 27%
45-64 35% 45-64 32%
65+ 13% 65+ 20%
14% of visitors staying in the city region were children; at the other end of the scale there were
relatively low proportions aged 65 or older (13%). We see that „just‟ 6% of visitors staying in the
city itself were children, although likewise a relatively high proportion of the staying audience
were aged 65 or older (20%).
Note that just 6% of visitors staying across the whole city region were aged 16-24, although this
group is of far more importance in the city itself (16%).
The 25-44 age bracket forms a very important part of those staying in the city, an estimated 27%.
7.5%
2.6%
9.1%
8.6%
6.3%
11.2%
5.4%
7.0%
3.3%
7.0%
7.5%
8.0%
9.3%
7.3%
0-15
16-24
25-34
35-44
45-54
55-64
65+
Male Female
2.8%
6.6%
5.6%
6.5%
6.2%
8.8%
8.7%
2.8%
9.0%
7.6%
6.9%
7.7%
9.5%
11.1%
0-15
16-24
25-34
35-44
45-54
55-64
65+
Male Female
Visitor Profile
Digest of Tourism Statistics North West Research The Liverpool LEP January 2015 Page 32
3.5 Group Type
Besides raw demographics, there is also the question as to which type of group visitors were
with. Those visiting with their children made up over half of the total day trip market in the area
(53%); those on a staying trip were most likely to be with their partner or spouse (41% - and this
is even more likely in Liverpool itself, at 50%).
a) Day visitors
b) Staying visitors
9%
53%
7%
22%
12%
1%
9%
39%
10%
24%
13%
6%
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
On my own With family (incl. children)
With family (excl. Children)
With partner / spouse
With friends Organised group
Whole City Region Liverpool City Centre
6%
27%
10%
41%
20%
3%
8%
16%
11%
50%
22%
3%
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
On my own With family (incl. children)
With family (excl. Children)
With partner / spouse
With friends Organised group
Whole City Region Liverpool City Centre
National Data
Digest of Tourism Statistics North West Research The Liverpool LEP January 2015 Page 33
4 National data
Within this section of the report we turn to what national data tells us is happening in the visitor
economy across the country. This helps us benchmark the city region‟s current performance and
understand emerging trends. Much of this information comes from Visit Britain and Visit
England‟s tourism intelligence pages, and links to a full range of data sources are provided within
the appendix. In all cases, the data should be compared with the relevant local data, as provided
earlier in this Digest.
4.1 Occupancy trends
Source: England Occupancy Survey
National data indicates that overall for 2014 occupancy figures were equal to 2013
occupancy figures at 69%.
The chart below shows growth by location type.
Source: England Occupancy Survey
47
%
54
%
59
%
63
%
68
%
73
%
72
%
73
%
77
%
71
%
64
%
56
%
49
%
60
%
63
%
66
%
71
%
75
%
78
%
77
%
77
%
72
%
67
%
59
%
52
%
61
%
64
%
64
%
72
%
76
%
79
%
79
%
79
%
74
%
68
%
61
%
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
90%
Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
England Hotel Room Occupancy Monthly Trends
2012 2013 2014
71% 57% 51% 53%70% 59% 51% 52%73% 61% 54% 55%78% 65% 61% 58%0%
20%
40%
60%
80%
100%
City / Large town Small town Seaside Countryside
Room occupancy (Jan Dec)
2011 2012 2013 2014
National Data
Digest of Tourism Statistics North West Research The Liverpool LEP January 2015 Page 34
4.2 Visits to attractions trends
The chart below highlights changes in visitor growth to different attraction genres across the
country. We note first of all that overall there have been three consecutive years where
attractions have recorded growth in visits – a net -1% of all attractions showed growth
decreasing visitor numbers from 2011 to 2012.
Source: Annual England Attractions Survey
The graph suggests that over the last year growth across England has been strongest in visits to,
Museums/art galleries and workplaces.
Growth has been weakest for Wildlife attractions/zoos, Gardens and Historic
houses/castles – and a relatively neutral experience for Farms.
Note that despite the economic climate, -3% of paid attractions saw a decrease in
admissions, against +2% of free attractions.
5%
2%
6%
10% 12%
1%
1%
3%
7%
5%
2%
2%
6%
9%
3% 4%
-5%
-6%
1%
15
%
-1%
5%
1%
-3%
-3%
4%
4%
2%
5%
4% 5%
9%
6%
9%
2%
-1%
-3%
2%
9%
0%
7%
3%
-1%
-2%
0%
-2%
-4%
0%
-1%
2%
-5%
-2%
-4%
1%
-2%
1%
-20%
-15%
-10%
-5%
0%
5%
10%
15%
20%
En
gla
nd
ave
rag
e
Cou
ntr
y p
ark
s
Fa
rms
Ga
rde
ns
His
tori
c h
ou
se
s/c
astles
Oth
er
his
tori
c p
rop
ert
ies
Le
isu
re/t
he
me
pa
rks
Mu
se
um
s/a
rt g
alle
rie
s
Ste
am
/he
rita
ge
ra
ilwa
ys
Vis
ito
r/h
eri
tage
ce
ntr
es
Wild
life
att
ractio
ns/z
oo
s
Work
pla
ces
Pla
ce
s o
f w
ors
hip
Oth
er
% o
f a
ttra
cti
on
s r
ep
ort
ing
a r
ise
/dro
p in
ad
mis
sio
ns
Year on year change in visits to attractions, England
2008-2009 2009-2010 2010-2011 2011-12
Forecasts
Digest of Tourism Statistics North West Research The Liverpool LEP January 2015 Page 35
4.3 Domestic visitors (GBTS)
a) Overall results
The Great Britain Tourist Survey (GBTS) is
the main measure of the national volume of
domestic tourism and is supported by the
national tourist boards. GBTS20
measures
overnight trips, rather than the total domestic
market.
Data from the Great Britain Tourism Survey
2013 (GBTS) indicates that Liverpool was the
5th most visited town/city in England by
domestic tourists21,
with an estimated
1,678,000 overnight trips. .
Top 20 most visited English Cities & Towns by
UK residents
2011 2012 2013
Town/City
Visits
(000s) Town/City
Visits
(000s) Town/City
Visits
(000s)
1 London 11,093 1 London 12,152 1 London 12,305
2 Manchester 2,613 2 Manchester 3,126 2 Manchester 2,756
3 Birmingham 2,251 3 Birmingham 2,748 3 Birmingham 2,267
4 Bristol 1,828 4 Scarborough 1,726 4 Bristol 1,921
5 Scarborough 1,645 5 Leeds 1,548 5 Liverpool 1,678
6 York 1,615 6 Bristol 1,518 6 Leeds 1,660
7 Leeds 1,493 7 York 1,517 7 Scarborough 1,597
8 Blackpool 1,478 8 Liverpool 1,470 8 Blackpool 1,356
9 Liverpool 1,428 9 Blackpool 1,298 9 York 1,268
10 Newcastle upon Tyne 1,303 10 Newcastle-upon-Tyne 1,251 10 Nottingham 1,132
11 Sheffield 1,293 11
Sheffield
1,233 11 Newcastle-upon-
Tyne
1,081
12 Brighton and Hove 1,096 12
Nottingham
1,081 12 Brighton and
Hove
1,023
13 Nottingham 1,066 13 Skegness 1,074 13 Sheffield 1,010
14 Isle of Wight 1,053 14 Brighton and Hove 1,047 14 Isle of Wight 972
15 Bournemouth 1,051 15 Isle of Wight 1,006 15 Bournemouth 890
16 Skegness 992 16 Bournemouth 917 16 Southampton 822
17 Southampton 973 17 Portsmouth 855 17 Coventry 764
18 Norwich 934 18 Southampton 792 18 Norwich 757
19 Cambridge 769 19 Oxford 780 19 Portsmouth 743
20 Plymouth 745 20 Norwich 771 20 Chester 709
Source: GBTS, Visit England
20
Note that the GBTS is primarily a national survey and not as accurate at destination level; whilst we would use our STEAM numbers at local level, the rank order is useful. 21
Defined as staying visitors from England, Scotland and Wales; those from Northern Ireland are no longer included in the survey (to reflect this, the survey is now known as “GBTS” – previously it was “UKTS”).
12
,30
5
2,7
56
2,2
67
1,9
21
1,6
78
1,6
60
1,5
97
1,3
56
1,2
68
1,1
32
0
500
1,000
1,500
2,000
2,500
3,000
Lo
nd
on
Ma
nch
este
r
Bir
min
gh
am
Bri
sto
l
Liv
erp
oo
l
Le
ed
s
Sca
rbo
rou
gh
Bla
ckp
oo
l
Yo
rk
No
ttin
gh
am
Top Towns 2013: Staying visits (000s) by GB residents
Source: GBTS, Visit England
Forecasts
Digest of Tourism Statistics North West Research The Liverpool LEP January 2015 Page 36
b) Results from different markets
The data shows that Liverpool is ranked 6th for “pure holiday visits” and 6th though for business
visits.
Source: GBTS, Visit England
Source: GBTS, Visit England
A fuller briefing note on key messages from the GBTS is
available on request from the LEP.
3,791
1,259
1,144
1,070
806
703
650
617
537
510
0 500 1,000 1,500
London
Scarborough
Blackpool
Manchester
York
Liverpool
Isle of Wight
Birmingham
Skegness
Nottingham
Top Towns 2013: Pure holiday staying trips (000s)
3,340
632
611
593
505
289
212
208
203
189
0 200 400 600 800
London
Birmingham
Bristol
Manchester
Leeds
Liverpool
Sheffield
Coventry
Newcastle
Milton Keynes
Top Towns 2013: Business staying trips (000s)
Forecasts
Digest of Tourism Statistics North West Research The Liverpool LEP January 2015 Page 37
16
,78
4
1,3
03
98
8
94
1
56
2
51
5
45
6
42
8
40
9
40
4
-
500
1,000
1,500
2,000
Lo
nd
on
…
Ed
inb
urg
h
…
Ma
nch
este
r
…
Birm
ing
ha
m
…
Liv
erp
oo
l
…
Gla
sg
ow
…
Oxfo
rd
…
Bri
sto
l
…
Bri
gh
ton
/ H
ove
…
Cam
bri
dg
e
…
Top towns: Staying Visits (000s) by overseas visitors (IPS)
4.4 Inbound visitors (IPS)
a) Overall results
The International Passenger Survey is conducted
by ONS on behalf of Visit Britain. Passengers
arriving through major airports (including LJLA),
seaports and the Channel Tunnel are surveyed.
The survey shows that Liverpool‟s ongoing
growth as a visitor destination means it is now the
5th
-most visited city in Britain by overseas
residents.
The city recorded approximately 562,000
overseas staying visits in 2013, and is only
behind London, Edinburgh, Manchester and
Birmingham.
In terms of geographically close „competitors‟
(who might also feed our day visits market),
Manchester recorded an estimated 1.3m
overseas staying visits..
Source: IPS, VisitBritain / ONS
Top 20 most visited UK Cities & Towns by Overseas residents
2011 2012 2013
Town/City
Visits
(000s) Town/City Visits (000s) Town/City
Visits
(000s)
1 London 15289 1 London 15,461 1 London 16,784
2 Edinburgh 1342 2 Edinburgh 1,256 2 Edinburgh 1,303
3 Manchester 934 3 Manchester 932 3 Manchester 988
4 Birmingham 733 4 Birmingham 713 4 Birmingham 941
5 Liverpool 545 5 Liverpool 550 5 Liverpool 562
6 Glasgow 475 6 Glasgow 521 6 Glasgow 515
7 Oxford 465 7 Oxford 430 7 Oxford 456
8 Bristol 430 8 Cambridge 398 8 Bristol 428
9
Cambridge 387
9
Bristol 395
9 Brighton and
Hove 409
10 Leeds 306
10 Brighton and Hove 345
10 Cambridge 404
11 Brighton and Hove 304 11 Cardiff 301 11 Leeds 299
12 Cardiff 291 12 Leeds 299 12 Cardiff 297
13 Aberdeen 250 13 Nottingham 215 13 Bath 283
14 Nottingham 244 14 Inverness 213 14 York 271
15 Newcastle-upon-Tyne 239 15 Newcastle-upon-Tyne 212 15 Nottingham 247
16 Bath 232 16 Bath 211 16 Aberdeen 241
17 York 222 17 Aberdeen 208 17 Inverness 226
18 Inverness 215 18 York 199 18 Southampton 221
19
Windsor 211
19
Reading 196
19 Newcastle-
upon-Tyne 201
20 Canterbury 191 20 Windsor 182 20 Reading 193
Forecasts
Digest of Tourism Statistics North West Research The Liverpool LEP January 2015 Page 38
Source: IPS, VisitBritain / ONS
b) Results from different markets
The following charts breakdown the information by purpose of visit. Please note that those visiting to attend sporting events are an important contributor to the figures relating to „other purpose‟.
Source: IPS, VisitBritain / ONS
8,501
838
262
222
216
195
194
169
143
126
0 200 400 600 800 1,000
London
Edinburgh
Glasgow
Manchester
Brighton / Hove
Liverpool
Inverness
Oxford
Bristol
Cambridge
Top Towns: Pure holiday staying trips (000s)
3,773
275
248
243
156
142
136
136
115
107
0 50 100 150 200 250 300
London
Edinburgh
Manchester
Birmingham
Bristol
Glasgow
Cambridge
Liverpool
Oxford
Leeds
Top Towns: VFR staying trips (000s)
3,239
483
336
134
126
125
123
115
104
101
0 100 200 300 400
London
Birmingham
Manchester
Edinburgh
Liverpool
Aberdeen
Oxford
Leeds
Bristol
Cambridge
Top Towns: Business staying trips (000s)
1,092
167
116
95
43
25
21
18
18
15
0 50 100 150 200
London
Manchester
Birmingham
Liverpool
Edinburgh
Leeds
Oxford
Cardiff
Glasgow
Cambridge
Top Towns: "Other purpose" (000s)
Forecasts
Digest of Tourism Statistics North West Research The Liverpool LEP January 2015 Page 39
5 Forecasts
5.1 Trends from the Liverpool City Region 3-year Action Plan
The visitor economy has seen strong growth over the last few years, as evidenced earlier in this
Digest. Despite current economic conditions, strong growth is still expected from the sector. The
graph below shows the expected trends (indexed to 2006). Figures have been updated from the
previous Digest, following the latest STEAM data (as noted in section 1) and known hotel
developments.
Source: Destination Management Plan
Certain components of change we already know; below we summarise the key hotel
developments, both currently under way and those planned over the next few years.
Source: Tourist board hotel stock data
80
90
100
110
120
130
140
150
20
06
20
07
20
08
20
09
20
10
20
11
20
12
20
13
20
14
20
15
20
16
20
17
20
18
20
19
20
20
20
21
20
22
20
23
Ch
an
ge
(in
de
xe
d t
o 2
00
6)
Tourism growth trend - Liverpool City Region
Staying Visitors Day Visitors
5,0
62
5,7
17
6,0
67
6,1
38
4,6
11
4,8
05
4,8
65
3,8
70
0
1000
2000
3000
4000
5000
6000
7000
2012 2013 2014 2015
Hotel room stock
Liverpool City Centre Elsewhere City Region
43
45
52
54
85
88
89
10
1
0
20
40
60
80
100
120
2012 2013 2014 2015
Hotel establishments
Liverpool City Centre Elsewhere City Region
Articles
Digest of Tourism Statistics North West Research The Liverpool LEP January 2015 Page 40
6 Articles
6.1 Business performance
Introduction
Throughout the year North West Research conducts the „How‟s Business‟ survey in order to
monitor performance of the sector locally and identify any emerging concerns that businesses
may have. This was of particular importance during the recession.
A web-based survey is currently used. All LEP‟s tourism and conference members / contacts
are sent an email inviting them to participate in the research, highlighting the reasons for the
survey. Unfortunately response rates are currently relatively low with an average „strike rate‟ of
less than 5% typically yielding < 50 responses. This means that although we are able to gauge
the overall „mood‟ amongst businesses, we are not able to view to any depth what is happening
in different sub-sectors of the visitor economy.
This report presents the findings from the latest survey conducted at the beginning of 2013.
Industry performance over the past few months
Businesses were asked how their performance had been, compared with the same period a
year ago.
30.4%
8.7%
34.8%43.5%
43.5%
26.1%
43.5%
39.1%
26.1%
65.2%
21.7% 17.4%
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
90%
100%
How has business been generally during the end of 2012(October to
December) compared to the same time in 2011
Up
Level
Down
27.3%36.4%
52.4%57.9%
45.0%
54.6%
50.0%
38.1%36.8%
45.0%
18.2%13.6% 9.5% 5.3%10.0%
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
90%
100%
And have you experienced any changes in the following types of business
compared to the same period last year
Up
Level
Down
Articles
Digest of Tourism Statistics North West Research The Liverpool LEP January 2015 Page 41
Industry Forecast
Businesses were then asked how they would forecast their overall profitability over the next
three months – compared to the same period last year (note that during the recession this
survey ran more frequently).
53%
67%
59%
57%
53%
50%
52%
42%
45%
41%
56%
24%
35%
35%
35%
24%
27%
17%
28%
13%
27%
25%
28%
38%
35%
35%
22%
35%
31%
31%
31%
30%
20%
17%
24%
30%
21%
25%
21%
21%
20%
24%
22%
41%
35%
35%
35%
35%
0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%
January 2009.
February 2009.
March 2009.
May 2009.
June 2009.
August 2009.
September 2009.
November 2009.
March 2010.
July 2010.
January 2011.
September 2011.
December 2011.
March 2012.
September 2012.
December 2012.
Down Level Up
Articles
Digest of Tourism Statistics North West Research The Liverpool LEP January 2015 Page 42
Market branding
A new question used in this edition of „How‟s Business‟, asked people what they think about all
the different brands that are important to the City Region.
The most common responses for this question were that people thought the most important
brands for the City Region were the „Football‟ (17%) and the „Beatles‟ (17%).
Following on from the previous question, respondents were asked whether they thought the
brands importance were in increasing or decreasing in the City Region.
6.5%
7.5%
7.5%
14.0%
15.0%
15.9%
16.8%
16.8%
0% 2% 4% 6% 8% 10% 12% 14% 16% 18%
Golf
World Heritage Site
Maritime
Retail Destination
Festival events
Culture
Beatles
Football
Which of these brands do you think are important for the LCR?
9.1%
19.1%
4.6
%4
.6%
22.7%
15.0%
14.2%
18.2%
68.2%
57.1%
40.9%
50.0%
59.1%
70.0%
61.9%
54.6%
22.7%
23.0%
54.6%
45.5%
18.2%
15.0%
23.8%
27.3%
0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%
Beatles
World Heritage Site
Retail Destination
Culture
Football
Golf
Maritime
Festival events
Which are increasing or decreasing in importance?
Decreasing
No change
Increasing
Articles
Digest of Tourism Statistics North West Research The Liverpool LEP January 2015 Page 43
International Festival for Business
Also a new question, respondents were then asked if they were aware of Liverpool hosting the
International Festival for Business.
71.4%
28.6%
Are you aware that Liverpool will be hosting an International Festival for Business in June and
July 2014?
Yes
No
5.9%
11.8%
29.4%
52.9%
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60%
Don't know
Not at all
Longer term
During the festival itself
If Yes to the previous question. Do you think the International Festival for Business will create new opportunities for your business?
13.6%
40.9%
45.5%
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50%
Don't know
Longer term
During the festival itself
Will the International Festival for Business create new opportunities for Liverpool City Region?
Articles
Digest of Tourism Statistics North West Research The Liverpool LEP January 2015 Page 44
Business Profile
Respondents were finally asked a few questions about their businesses:
5.0%
65.0%
20.0%
10.0%
Origin of Business
Knowsley
Liverpool
Sefton
Wirral
0.0%
4.8%
4.8%
4.8%
9.5%
9.5%
14.3%
52.4%
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60%
Activity provider
Transport / tour operator
Theatre
Conference venue
Visitor attraction
Self-catering
Restaurant, pub or cafe
Hotel, guesthouse or B&B
What is your main business activity
9.1%
9.1%
36.4%
0.0%
9.1%
18.2%
0.0%
0.0%
18.2%
0%
0% 10% 20% 30% 40%
Unknown / Prefer not to say
£1-2m
£500k-£1m
£250-500k
£100-250k
£50-100k
£40-50k
£30-40k
£10-20k
Less than 10K
What is your expected turnover in the 2012/13 financial year
14%
29%
24%
10%
0%
10%
5%
10%
0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25% 30%
>100
51-100
21-50
11-20
6-10
3-5
2
Just me
Size of business (by employee)
Articles
Digest of Tourism Statistics North West Research The Liverpool LEP January 2015 Page 45
6.2 Tourism Business Confidence – Nationally
Data from Visit England provides a barometer in terms of national business performance; at
different points in the year 500 accommodation providers and 300 visitor attractions are asked for
their recent performance and expectations for the short-term.
a) Performance of the Domestic Visitor market
Source: Visit England Tourism Business Monitor,
b) Performance of the Overseas Visitor market
Source: Visit England Tourism Business Monitor,
36% 38% 46%
-12% -11% -9%
-40%
-30%
-20%
-10%
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
Accommodation providers
Down
Up
39% 40% 50%
-10% -9% -8%
-40%
-20%
0%
20%
40%
60%
Attractions
Down
Up
38% 30% 39%
-14% -18% -8%
-40%
-30%
-20%
-10%
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
Accommodation providers
Down
Up
36% 35% 31%
-15% -10% -14%
-40%
-20%
0%
20%
40%
60%
Attractions
Down
Up
Articles
Digest of Tourism Statistics North West Research The Liverpool LEP January 2015 Page 46
c) Business confidence
Source: Visit England Tourism Business Monitor
42% 45% 32%
49%42%
54%
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
90%
100%
Se
p-1
4
Oct-
14
No
v-1
4
De
c-1
4
Ja
n-1
5
Accommodation providers
Very confident Fairly confident
42% 37% 45%
54%55%
51%
0%
20%
40%
60%
80%
100%
120%
Se
p-1
4
Oct-
14
No
v-1
4
De
c-1
4
Ja
n-1
5
Attractions
Very confident Fairly confident
Articles
Digest of Tourism Statistics North West Research The Liverpool LEP January 2015 Page 47
6.3 News
In response to requests from some of our businesses, within this section of the report we present
some of the key aspects that have impacted on the local visitor economy over the last 12 months.
We also indicate some of the current activity by the research team, which may be of interest.
Clearly we cannot cover every single one of the many items involved, but if you know of
something which should be included here, do let us know about it.
a) 2014
Hotel Openings
March 2014 Doubletree by Hilton, Sir Thomas Street – 87 rooms
May 2014 Titanic Hotel, Stanley Street – 153 rooms.
Mid 2014 Aloft, North John Street – 116 rooms
Mid 2014 Signature, Albion House - 67 rooms
Mid 2014: Royal Hillbre – 8 rooms
Major events:
July 2014: Liverpool International Festival for Business
The International Festival for Business (IFB) 2014 is the largest global
concentration of business events during 2014. The 50-day festival runs across 7
weeks in June and July and will attract business delegates and trade
intermediaries from around the world.
August 2014: Liverpool Biennial:
Liverpool Biennial delivers the UK Biennial of Contemporary Art, the leading
festival of visual arts in the UK, every 2 years. The Biennial is underpinned by a
year-round programme of research, education, residencies and commissions..
July 2014: Giants
A three-day piece of street theatre featuring three giant puppets and inspired by
the Titanic, watched by an estimated 1 million people.
Other:
Aug 2014: Liverpool International Music Festival
March 2014: Reopening of the Everyman Theatre
July 2014: Mersey River Festival
July 2014: Open Golf Championship at Royal Liverpool
Articles
Digest of Tourism Statistics North West Research The Liverpool LEP January 2015 Page 48
b) 2015
Hotel Openings
Early 2015: Pullmans Hotel – 200 rooms
Mid 2015: Tune Hotel - 99 rooms
Apr 2015: Signature Living, Bill Shankly – 76 rooms
Major events:
Feb 2015: TATE Andy Warhol exhibition
Mar 2013: Liberal Democrats Spring Conference, ACC
April 2015: Grand National, Aintree
May 2015 3 Queens meet
May 2015: Liverpool Rock N Roll Marathon
Aug 2015 : Liverpool International Music Festival
Other:
Jun 2014 British Medical Association, BT Convention Centre
Jul 2015: Southport Air Show
Aug 2015: Southport Flower Show
c) Research Activity
The following is activity underway by the research team on behalf of the tourist board:
Hotel Occupancy interpretation
STEAM data collection
Appendices
Digest of Tourism Statistics North West Research The Liverpool LEP January 2015 Page 49
Appendix i: Further reference sources
http://liverpoollep.org/
The homepage of the Liverpool City Region Local Enterprise
Partnership, with links to all the documents we produce.
http://www.visitengland.org/insight-statistics/
The research part of the VisitEngland website; includes many
useful research elements included the short-term tourism tracker,
England Occupancy Survey (EOS) and attractions monitor.
http://www.visitbritain.org/
The trade website for VisitBritain; you can follow a link on this
page to “Insights & Statistics” for the national market research
they gather, which includes inbound visitor statistics and domestic
tourism statistics, as well as useful country profiles.
http://www.caa.co.uk/airportstatistics
The Civil Aviation Authority has pages containing details of all
UK airport passenger numbers (including Liverpool John Lennon
Airport) both in total and by route.
http://www.etc-corporate.org/
The European Travel Commission; aimed at industry,
government and educational personnel interested in tourism to
Europe, with link to market intelligence reports and studies.
http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/portal/page/portal/eurostat/home
Eurostat – the official statistics website from the European
Commission, including a section of the website devoted to
tourism with statistics and publications.
http://www.liv.ac.uk/impacts08/
Impacts 08 – European Capital of Culture research programme
evaluating the social, cultural, economic and environmental
effects of Liverpool‟s hosting the European Capital of Culture title
in 2008. Reports available for download.
http://www.statistics.gov.uk/
The UK Statistics Authority; contains details and links to a
range of information resources across all topics and areas.
For transport-related data visit www.dft.gov.uk
For labour market data visit www.nomisweb.co.uk
Appendices
Digest of Tourism Statistics North West Research The Liverpool LEP January 2015 Page 50
Appendix ii: SIC codes defining the visitor economy
The Standard Industrial Classification Codes (SIC) shown below are those which are chosen as best
representing the visitor economy. Inevitably, there will be some overlap, with some businesses in these
sectors performing wholly non-tourism related functions and some businesses in sectors not included
having a tourism focus.
4932 : Taxi operation
5010 : Sea and coastal passenger water transport
5030 : Inland passenger water transport
5510 : Hotels and similar accommodation
5520 : Holiday and other short stay accommodation
5530 : Camping grounds, recreational vehicle parks and trailer parks
5590 : Other accommodation
5610 : Restaurants and mobile food service activities
5621 : Event catering activities
5629 : Other food service activities
5630 : Beverage serving activities
7711 : Renting and leasing of cars and light motor vehicles
7721 : Renting and leasing of recreational and sports goods
7912 : Tour operator activities
7990 : Other reservation service and related activities
8230 : Convention and trade show organizers
9001 : Performing arts
9002 : Support activities to performing arts
9003 : Artistic creation
9004 : Operation of arts facilities
9102 : Museum activities
9103 : Operation of historical sites and buildings & similar visitor attractions
9104 : Botanical and zoological gardens and nature reserve activities
9311 : Operation of sports facilities
9321 : Activities of amusement parks and theme parks
9329 : Other amusement and recreation activities
For full detail of all SIC codes and their structure, the following document may be of use:
http://www.statistics.gov.uk/methods_quality/sic/downloads/sic2007explanatorynotes.pdf
Appendices
Digest of Tourism Statistics North West Research The Liverpool LEP January 2015 Page 51
Table 1. Confidence in a single percentage result.
The +/- figures show the variation around the result (left hand column) that applies for each chosen
sample size. Thus a survey result of 40% from a sample of 500 would mean that we were 95%
confident that the true result across the whole population lies between 35.7% and 44.3%.
% result Sample Size
100 200 500 1,000 5,000
50% +/- 9.8% +/- 6.9% +/- 4.4% +/- 3.1% +/- 1.4%
40% / 60% +/- 9.6% +/- 6.8% +/- 4.3% +/- 3.0% +/- 1.4%
30% / 70% +/- 9.0% +/- 6.4% +/- 4.0% +/- 2.8% +/- 1.3%
20% / 80% +/- 7.8% +/- 5.5% +/- 3.5% +/- 2.5% +/- 1.1%
10% / 90% +/- 5.9% +/- 4.2% +/- 2.6% +/- 1.9% +/- 0.8%
5% / 95% +/- 4.3% +/- 3.0% +/- 1.9% +/- 1.4% +/- 0.6%
Table 2. Confidence in a difference between two percentage results.
The +/- figures show the difference from the first result (left hand column) that the second result needs
to display. Thus if the first survey result was 40% from a sample of 500, the second result would have
to be either over 46.1% or under 33.9% for us to be 95% confident that there was a true difference in
the population at large.
% result Sample Size
100 200 500 1,000 5,000
50% +/-13.9% +/- 9.8% +/- 6.2% +/- 4.4% +/- 2.0%
40% / 60% +/-13.6% +/- 9.6% +/- 6.1% +/- 4.3% +/- 1.9%
30% / 70% +/-12.7% +/- 9.0% +/- 5.7% +/- 4.0% +/- 1.8%
20% / 80% +/-11.1% +/- 7.8% +/- 5.0% +/- 3.5% +/- 1.6%
10% / 90% +/- 8.3% +/- 5.9% +/- 3.7% +/- 2.6% +/- 1.1%
5% / 95% +/- 6.0% +/- 4.3% +/- 2.7% +/- 1.9% +/- 0.9%
Appendix iii: Crude guide to statistical confidence levels
In much of the survey data that is presented within the Digest and other research publications, the results
are indicative of the views, activities and behaviour of respondents. The question arises at some point as
to how likely are these results to apply to the “universe”; what is the potential that those surveyed are not
truly representative of the population as a whole?
There are two tables shown. The first gives the range around a particular percentage result within which
one can be confident that the true result across the whole population lies; the second shows the minimum
difference you would need between two results to be confident that there was really a difference.
These tables are based on the following assumptions:
o The samples have been randomly drawn (in actuality this is never true in survey research,
because there is always an element of refusal to cooperate - but, for practical purposes it is
standard to assume that it is true).
o The degree of confidence is 95%. This means that there is still a 5% chance that the result is
outside of the range by chance. 95% is used as it has become the convention in balancing
degree of confidence against cost of data collection.
22
22
Footnote to this table. These are approximations - for guidance only. The precise difference required for the
second percentage will vary with whether it is below or above the first percentage)
Appendices
Digest of Tourism Statistics North West Research The Liverpool LEP January 2015 Page 52
Appendix iv: Details of available publications
A. Tourism publications
The following documents are available to download by going to the visitor economy section of our
website at http://liverpoollep.org/priorities/visitor_economy.aspx
Destination Plans:
Liverpool City Region 3 year Action Plan
Liverpool City Region Visitor Economy Strategy to 2020
Research:
The latest research publications, including the Digest will also be kept here.
Other news:
“The Biz” – publication featuring news and views for tourism businesses across the
Liverpool City Region,
B. Other publications
The following documents are available to download from the Key Documents section of the
website at http://liverpoollep.org/about_lep/key_documents.aspx
You can also Visit the Facts and Figures section of VisitLiverpool.biz:
http://visitliverpool.biz
Sectors
Visitor Economy 3 Year Action Plan
Low Carbon Economy Action Plan
Superport Action Plan
Knowledge Economy Plan
Please note: content on the website is subject to updates and restructure; downloads available by the time
this Digest is issued may reflect more recent version of the above.
Digest of Tourism Statistics North West Research The Liverpool LEP January 2015 Page 53
North West Research provides a comprehensive service designed to provide the
best intelligence for businesses within the City Region and further afield, with a
particular focus on sectors connected to the visitor economy.
The in-house research agency provides a wide
range of market research services to an array of
clients across the North West of England and
beyond. The service produces exceptional bespoke
market research tailored to organisations‟ needs
which is value driven. Effective research can provide
the foundation for understanding your
customers/clients, gathering up-to-date market
information, reviewing options, allowing for objective
and informed decision making.
Amongst our services are:
• Satisfaction surveys
• Marketing impact studies
• Economic impact assessment
• Branding and positioning research
• Customer segmentation
• Event evaluation
• Benchmarking
• Economic reviews
• Proposition testing
• Geographic-based research
Research is undertaken in a variety of ways
dependant on the project and may include face-to-
face fieldwork, web/email surveys, postal surveys,
omnibus studies, depth interviews, desk research,
focus groups and hall tests.
Over the past ten years the research service has
conducted more than 250 studies, with clients
including: Tate Liverpool, MerseyBio, The National
Trust, National Museums Liverpool, Merseytravel,
Heineken and Albert Dock (Gower St Estates).
Research Opportunities
Priced on request dependant on requirements
Sponsored Questions
There are also opportunities to buy into dedicated
visitor surveys which include:
• Destination benchmarking
• Tourism business performance survey
This Digest has been compiled by North West Research, the in-house research team at the Liverpool City
Region Local Enterprise Partnership. The team produce numerous key publications for the region, including the
annual Economic Review, as well as managing many regular research projects including Liverpool Destination
Benchmarking and the Liverpool John Lennon Airport Gateway study.
North West Research is operated by: The Liverpool City Region Local Enterprise Partnership 12 Princes Parade Liverpool L3 1BG 0151 237 3521
Digest of Tourism Statistics North West Research The Liverpool LEP January 2015 Page 54