Visitor spend keeps soccer high on tourism table

New research from the British national tourist agency VisitBritain demonstrates the increasing importance of soccer in driving inbound tourism to the United Kingdom and in boosting visitor spending.

In its Football Tourism in the UK report published on Wednesday, the findings showed that in 2019, overseas visitors who went to a match spent a total of 1.4 billion pounds ($1.93 billion) across the UK during their trip, up 84 percent on the 742 million pounds spent in 2011, the last time such research was conducted.

There were 1.5 million visits to the UK in 2019 that included watching live soccer, up 66 percent on 2011, when there were 909,000 visits.

The research also found that visitors who attended a match spent more and stayed longer, spending 909 pounds per visit on average, 31 percent more than the global visitor average of 696 pounds in 2019, and staying 10 nights compared to seven.

The study suggested it was not just leisure visitors who enjoyed matches. Out of the 1.5 million who went to a game during their stay, 94,000 were international business visitors.

Soccer also took the top spot in 2019 as the most popular live sporting event for international tourists to the UK.

Tourism Minister Nigel Huddleston said: "Our national game is a massive draw for visitors that want to come and watch top-class football from some of the best Leagues in the world. Football tourists boost local economies during the off－peak tourism season supporting restaurants, hotels and hospitality venues."

More than half of visitors who watched soccer during their trip also took time to see the UK's famous monuments and buildings, and almost three-quarters included a restaurant meal, the research showed. They were also more likely than other inbound visitors to undertake these activities, underscoring the additional value soccer tourism brings to the economy, the research indicated.

Sally Balcombe, chief executive of VisitBritain, said: "This research demonstrates the huge draw and increasingly valuable role of live football in attracting international visitors to Britain. It also cements the importance of football in driving regional tourism by encouraging visitors to explore different parts of Britain and its effectiveness in driving growth across the shoulder seasons (the period between the peak and off season), boosting local economies.

"We will continue to harness the global interest in football as international travel reopens, helping drive back demand for travel to Britain, from our long-standing partnership with the Premier League to content partnerships in our overseas markets and global promotion through our digital channels."

Richard Masters, chief executive of the English Premier league, said: "The Premier League and its clubs provide competitive football, featuring the world's best players and managers, in front of brilliant fans. We are very proud of the positive impact the League has on both national and local economies."

Almost two-thirds of trips took place in either January to March or October to December, cementing the game's importance in driving inbound tourism outside the peak travel seasons.

Overseas visitors to the Northwest of England were the most likely to watch a soccer match, with almost one-in-five doing so, followed by 1-in-14 overseas visitors to the Northeast, and one-in-20 to Yorkshire.

Looking at visits to specific stadiums, Old Trafford in Manchester and Anfield in Liverpool attracted the most international visits, 226,000 and 213,000 respectively.