Britain's inbound business travel figures drop by 25%

Christy Wyatt , 14 September 2009

Corporate travel to Britain has fallen by 25% in the first half of 2009 compared with the first half of 2008, according to Visit Britain's annual review for 2008/9.

Britain recorded 3.26m business visits in the first half of 2009, compared to 4.35 million in the first half of 2008.

Overall visitor figures to Britain were down by 9% for the same period, offset by a 4% growth in leisure visitors.

Visit Britain chief executive Sandie Dawe said: "The global recession started to hit in-bound tourism towards the end of 2008, and in the first six months of 2009, there was a 9% decline in inbound visitors. Business and corporate travel were worst affected."

Visit Britain promoted strong exchange rates with value-focused campaigns that led to more than 160,000 additional bookings for travel to Britain this year, the report revealed.

The campaigns also generated more than £1bn of media coverage and more than 26 million visits to the visitbritain.com website.

Visit Britain's marketing partnership with the Premier League was worth £7m in marketing spend and generated more than 230,000 website visits, Dawe added.

The organisation will now focus on delivering a global network to support tourism promotion overseas, championing tourism and engaging industry and the Government in support of its growth, and maximising the tourism legacy benefits of the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games.