Value of Liverpool City Region’s visitor economy hits £4.3bn

The Liverpool City Region’s visitor economy is now worth £4.3bn and supports more than 51.5k jobs, according to new data.

Research commissioned by VisitLiverpool, the city region’s tourist board, found that the area welcomed over 62m visitors last year, an increase of nearly 1m compared with 2015.

Liverpool is now the fifth most visited destination for overseas visitors to the UK, with hotel occupancy data showing that in 2016 there was almost 2% growth.

Between 2009 and 2016, the economic value of the city region’s visitor economy rose by 55.9%, which is equivalent to average growth of 8% annually. During the same period there was a 47% increase in day visitors.

Peter Sandman, the Liverpool City Region LEP’s head of visitor economy, said: “It is clear that the visitor economy is continuing to experience a healthy growth and continues to be of significant importance to the region’s economic base.

“The encouraging news of Liverpool moving up the rankings on the International Passenger Survey to become 5th most visited destination for overseas visitors also shows the continued appeal of the city as a global destination.”

Liverpool Mayor Joe Anderson commented: “We know how strong and wonderful our visitor economy is, and it’s very encouraging that its economic impact to the City Region has grown again to £4.3bn, with £2.9bn of that in Liverpool.

“I’m also delighted that we have increased the number of international visitors by 70k, resulting in us now being ranked fifth in the UK and overtaking Glasgow.”

He added: “We will not rest on our laurels however and with exciting programs planned for the rest of 2017 and particularly in 2018, we anticipate further growth.”