- Australia and Canada award Britain its highest rankings for ‘Welcome’
- Germany’s perception of British sport jumps four places
Results revealed today from the 2013 Anholt GfK Nations Brand Index study (NBI) carried out in July – a year on from the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games – confirm that Britain has built on its strong global reputation, with rises in perception rankings across a number of categories since last year. 1
The NBI study quizzed more than 20,000 people from a panel of twenty countries, rating fifty of the world’s leading nations against statements in a number of categories. Respondents’ scores are added up and compared to those given to other countries to give the rankings.
The historically weaker categories of ‘Welcome’ and ‘Natural Beauty’ showed the biggest improvement, with an extra vote of confidence on ‘Welcome’ from Australia and Canada – widely recognised as two of the most welcoming countries in the world.
How ‘welcoming’ potential visitors think Britain would be has seen a marked enhancement overall, bolstering its strength as a destination for international tourism. A leap of three rankings to tenth place makes 2013 the first year to see Britain in the top ten for perceptions of ‘Welcome’. Its highest ranking of fourth place comes from traditionally welcoming nations Australia and Canada, followed by South Africa and the USA, both bestowing fifth place. Whilst Argentinians ranked Britain low in thirty-eighth place, this is eleven places higher than last year.
Despite being a long-term sporting adversary, the study’s results suggest that Germans respect Britain’s sporting credentials more than ever, having upped their ‘Sport’ ranking for Britain by four rankings to fifth place. Britain’s overall ranking for ‘Sport’ – based on the extent to which respondents agree that Britain ‘excels at Sport’ – also moved up one place to fifth. The UK will continue to host major sporting events in the coming years, including the Grand Depart of The Tour de France, The Commonwealth Games and the Ryder Cup in 2014.
Britain is consistently rated very highly on most aspects relating to tourism and this is the third consecutive year it has been ranked third for ‘Overall Nation Brand’ and fourth for ‘Culture’, ‘Tourism’ and ‘People’. ‘Overall Nation Brand’ combines scores across all of the categories. No less than eighteen of the twenty panel countries rated Britain’s‘Overall Nation Brand’ in the top ten this year, whilst fifteen ranked us in the top five. The Polish have ranked Britain first for ‘Overall Nation Brand’ for another year and are joined this year by South Africa, also awarding first place overall.
Perceptions from the US improved across all tourism and culture categories, with the highest leap for cultural heritage, up by seven rankings this year to third place. The USA remains the UK’s most valuable source market for overseas visits but since 2000 the volume of visits has declined. Improved and positive perceptions of the UK in the USA are therefore especially encouraging and could help boost visitor numbers in the coming months and years.
Some of the most marked improvements in perception among the panel nations since last year’s results come from Japan and South Africa. Japan’s opinion of our ‘Natural Beauty’ has jumped favourably by nine places and seven places for ‘Welcome’, whilst South Africa’s perceptions have improved by eight places for ‘Natural Beauty’, nine for ‘Cultural Heritage’ and nine for ‘Welcome’.
High on the wish list for a large proportion of those taking an international trip is a destination with beautiful scenery. Britain has risen by two places in terms of being ‘rich in natural beauty’ to a ranking of twentieth – placing it in the top twenty for the first time. Natural beauty is generally seen as one of the nation’s weaker tourism areas and the only category in which Britain doesn’t rank in the top ten. Among Germans, Britain has jumped up five places (to twenty-second) and VisitBritain research shows that ‘natural beauty’ is an important holiday driver for this key market.
Britain is already a leading destination for holidaymakers seeking city breaks and this study suggests why, with nineteen out of the twenty countries placing Britain among the top ten when it comes to being ‘rich in contemporary culture’ and ‘vibrant cities’. Britain is also still seen as a highly aspirational destination to visit ‘if money was no object’ – ranked sixth in this regard across the entire survey. This year’s results saw an improvement in this category across major markets including France, USA and Australia as well as Brazil, Egypt, Japan and Poland.
Sandie Dawe, CEO of VisitBritain, commented: “These results prove that Britain has retained, and built on, the global image boost of hosting the Olympics. Our GREAT campaign has promoted culture, heritage and countryside – so to see historically weaker areas such as ‘Welcome’ and ‘Natural Beauty’ markedly improve is a considerable achievement. This wave of interviewing, one year on from the Olympics, gives us a reliable, long-term view and tells us that positive post-Games perceptions were certainly not short-lived. Our reputation across the world has firmly changed for the better and we will continue to build on this to promote Britain for tourism around the world. The figures speak for themselves, with record numbers of holidaymakers choosing to come here.”
Minister for Tourism Helen Grant said: “Great Britain has a huge amount to offer tourists – spectacular scenery, world class museums, fantastic sport, incredible theatre and welcoming people. It is encouraging that over a year on from London 2012 we have enhanced our reputation even further. Tourism is a crucial part of our economic growth strategy and it’s important that we continue to champion the best of Britain to the world.”
