Travelsmart
The USA, Australia and India continue to take the top spot for the UK’s favourite long-haul inbound tourism markets, according to research revealed at World Travel Market.
However, in a list of the top 30 long-haul countries and the top long-haul 50 cities, there have been some significant new entrants.
Nigeria has made it back into the top ten countries, up 13.7 per cent year-on-year, kicking out the UAE.
At the same time, Bangladesh has made it in to the top 30, replacing Chile.
Impressive growth has been recorded from several markets, most noticeably Bangladesh, up 32 per cent, China, up 19.8 per cent, and Taiwan, up 16 per cent.
The top three long-haul cities are New York (up 3.6 per cent), Hong Kong (up 7.4 per cent) and Sydney (down 2.1 per cent).
The most notable risers in the list of cities during the past year are Abjua (up 21 per cent), Delhi (up 21 per cent), Miami (up 20 per cent) and Seattle (up 17 per cent), all of which have climbed four or more places up the ranking.
The research, carried out by travel analytics firm ForwardKeys and World Travel Market – London, was based on long-haul flight bookings to the UK for the year to September 30th and benchmarked against the same dates a year before and five years ago.
Behind the changes in rankings are strong trends including the continued growth of China and other Asian economies, the strength of the US dollar, improvements in connectivity, recovery of commodity prices, particularly oil, the Argentine debt crisis and even the attractiveness of the Cricket World Cup.
Simon Press, World Travel Market – London exhibition director, said: “These rankings will be useful to everyone who is in business promoting the UK.”
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