Worst hit sector - VisitBritain
Business travel to Britain dropped by 25% in the first six months of 2009, compared to the same period in 2008.
There were 3.26m business visits to Britain in the first six months of 2009 compared to 4.45m in 2008,VisitBritain's annual review 2008-09 said today (September 14).
According to figures in the review, business travel accounts for 25% of the visits to Britain, below both the 31% visiting friends and relatives and the 34% on holiday.
Business travel accounted for 14% of the nights spent in Britain but 28% of the spend.
This compares with holidaymakers who accounted for 29% of the nights and 34% of the spend and those visiting friends and relatives who took up 40% of the nights but only 23% of the spend.
Sandie Dawe, VisitBrtain's ceo, said: "The global recession started to hit inbound tourism towards the end of 2008, and in the first six months of 2009 there was a 9% decline in inbound visitors.
"Business and corporate travel are worst affected.
"But leisure travel has bucked the trend, with inbound holiday visits up 4% in the first half of the year.
"Of course, the weak pound and the relative strength of the dollar and euro presented us with a great opportunity to focus on ‘value'."
Overall VisitBritain said tourism of all kinds contributed £114bn to the UK economy, 8.2% of its GDP. International visitors contributed £20bn of this.
Tourism also created 2/6m jobs, 4.3% of the workforce and involved more than 200,000 SMEs.
www.touristtrade.org.uk