Lancashire’s visitor economy now worth over £4bn

The tourism sector in Lancashire is now worth over £4bn, new data has revealed.

According to figures published by destination management organisation Marketing Lancashire, the area’s visitor economy generated £4.13bn in 2016, up 5.3% against the year previous.

Further, there are now over 59k tourism jobs in the county, with visitor numbers rising year on year by 4.5% to 67m.

Day visitor levels rose by 4.7% to 58.9m, while the number of those taking short breaks increased 2.9% to 8.3m.

Marketing Lancashire chief exec Ruth Connor said: “We’re delighted to see another successive year of growth in visitor numbers as well as a marked year-on-year increase in both economic impact and jobs, endorsing the very valuable contribution that tourism continues to make to Lancashire’s prosperity.

“Our visitor economy strategy aims to see visitor numbers reach 70m by 2020 so with continued investment in quality developments, new attractions, events, customer service excellence and our enviable reputation for a warm welcome, that goal is well within our grasp.”

Last year, Marketing Lancashire commissioned a county-wide survey to better the behaviours, tastes and attitudes of visitors.

Undertaken by research firm Tourism South East between July and September, with a smaller sample taken between October and December, the study collected the opinions of local visitors, people visiting from outside Lancashire and those who have not been to the county for some years.

Marketing Lancashire business manager Justina Ma, who led the research, commented: “What we found most encouraging was the very high level of satisfaction amongst our visitors, with 90% rating Lancashire highly for overall enjoyment and over 90% saying they would recommend a visit to Lancashire to others which gives us great confidence for future growth.”