As the Barclays Premier League kicks off again this week after a high-profile international break, new figures released by national tourism agency VisitBritain show that nearly one million overseas visitors watched a game of football here last year.
These 900,000 foreign football tourists spent a substantial £706 million, the equivalent of £785 per fan and £200 more than the average visitor (£583).
VisitBritain joined forces with the English Premier League back in 2008 to help promote the home of football in key overseas tourism markets using links to – and testimonials from – Premier League players and clubs. This partnership both builds interest in Britain and inspires fans to visit.
Around 40% of foreign fans going to a football match said that watching sport was the main reason for visiting the UK. The research also suggests that football works as a highly effective tool in enticing visitors to Britain at some of the quieter times of the year, with the greatest proportion of inbound visitors going to a football match between January and March.
Holiday visitors from Norway have the highest propensity to include ‘going to a football match’ (one-in-thirteen), followed by visits from the UAE. The markets generating the highest numbers of football spectating visits in 2011 were; Ireland (174,000), Norway (80,000), USA (61,000), Spain (54,000) and Germany (48,000). Mexico, Sweden and Iceland also featured highly in the category of ‘highest chance of going to a game’.
Football also encourages visitors to explore beyond London. The Premier League grounds attracting the largest number of overseas fans are in the North West. Nearly 20% of visitors who came here to see a game went to Old Trafford, followed closely by Anfield.
Sandie Dawe, Chief Executive of VisitBritain said: “The Premier League is known as the most international and exciting league in the world , supported by fans across the globe who want to find out more about their favourite players, come and see them play and explore their local areas.”
“Our partnership with the Premier League not only highlights the value of sports tourism to the UK economy, but it also helps drive inbound visits by inspiring travel to the UK at traditionally quieter times of the year.”
Inbound visits that include going to live sport
As part of a wider piece of research, VisitBritain analysed the visits that included going to a live sporting event – including football.
From Lord’s, Old Trafford and Wimbledon to Ascot, Wales Millennium Stadium and St Andrews, the list of venues where overseas visitors can enjoy our world-class sporting action stretches across Britain.
The survey found that around 1.3 million tourists went to a live sporting event in 2011, that’s 4 per cent of all visits, with the total amount spent by this group reaching £1.1bn.
Visitors who played sport in Britain spent £1.2bn, so as a total figure, sports tourism is worth £2.3bn to the UK economy each year.
The greatest volume of spectators for golf came from the USA, Rugby is unsurprisingly popular with the Irish and French with Cricket by far attracting the most spectators from Australia. A somewhat peculiar result is that residents of France are the next largest contributor to the cricket watching fraternity (could be ex-pat community). Horse racing is popular with visitors from Asia Pacific and Middle East but has truly global appeal.
