State visit from China’s president Xi Jinping brings record Chinese tourism boom for Britain

According to VisitBritain report, the UK's growing tourism market experienced a 35 per cent increase in the number of tourists coming from China, when compared with last year's same period.

Over the last five years, since 2009, the number of Chinese tourists that visited Britain more than doubled, going from 89.000 to 185.000 in 2014. Holiday visits also went up to 48 per cent when compared to last year's figures.

Also, Chinese tourists are estimated to spend four times more than the average, in a total of £2,688 each per vacation, as the total influx from Chinese holidays in Britain was £497.47 million in 2014.

Sally Balcombe, chief executive at VisitBritain, explains:

“China is the world’s largest outbound market and a huge tourism opportunity for Britain.

“Chinese visitors have very positive perceptions of Britain, they already stay longer here than in our European competitor destinations and are high spenders.

“We aim to double the current annual expenditure in the UK by Chinese visitors to £1 billion a year within the next five years.

“We are working hard to make sure that Britain is the destination of choice for the rapidly-growing Chinese market, further increasing their desire to travel here through high-profile campaigns in China, as part of our GREAT campaign.

“The state visit of the president of China Xi Jinping this week, and the accompanying international media exposure and visibility, is a fantastic opportunity for us to inspire more international visitors from China to come and explore all the nations and regions of Britain.”