Liverpool named fourth highest UK tourist destination

**-:Undertaker:-** · 29-01-2016, 06:44 PM

http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/news/...st-uk-10810067

Liverpool named fourth highest UK tourist destination

The city was placed behind London, Edinburgh and third-placed Manchester

Originally Posted by Liverpool Echo

Liverpool has been named the fourth top destination in the UK for overseas travellers.

The city sits ahead of Glasgow, Belfast and Brighton in the list of top UK tourist cities, according to data from Hotels.com.

The company uses data from their websites to rank destinations based on their popularity.

Only London, Edinburgh and Manchester ranker higher.

Liverpool City Council’s cabinet member for culture and tourism, Cllr Wendy Simon, said how pleased she was to know that Liverpool had once again made it on to a top ten destination list.

She said: “This city has so much to offer when it comes to its history and rich cultural heritage that visitors are spoilt for choice when they spend time here. Whether you’re passionate about architecture, music, sport or shopping this city is an unmissable location.

“And of course the warm welcome from Liverpool makes people want to return time and time again.”

Liverpool has held onto its fourth-place finish from the 2014 rankings, but has failed to overtake Manchester in third.

Powerful brand: British flags hand along Regent Street in London

Originally Posted by Liverpool Echo

Mike Dewey, the general manager of the Beatles-themed hotel Hard Days Night, said he has seen first-hand the increase in the number of tourists coming to the city since 2008.

He said: “When this hotel opened in 2008 there were 2,300 hotel rooms in Liverpool. There are now around 7,500 rooms in Liverpool and the occupancy of those rooms is higher than it was in 2008 as well.

“The occupancy across the city has grown and there have not been any massively big businesses moving into the area. It is all leisure and tourism.

“Even after 2008 in recessionary years, we didn’t go forward but we didn’t go back. Since things have looked up, occupancy rates have grown year on year.”

Mr Dewey said he was shocked at Manchester’s position above Liverpool in the rankings.

He said: “I am surprised at that because I am not sure what Manchester really brings to the table.

“I think Liverpool has more to offer in history, architecture, leisure and it is just a better place to be. That does seems odd.”

Lisa Middleton, the marketing and publications manager at National Musuems Liverpool, the group which manages the Merseyside Maritime Musuem and the International Slavery Museum, among others, said people are drawn to the city for its wide range of cultural hotspots.

She said: “In terms of visitors and tourism, our venues are very popular both locally and internationally. In 2014/15 we had over 2.7 million visitors to our venues and 63% of them were from outside the city region.

“Our venues have so many different things to offer to they are really popular to people from overseas.

“It’s great for the north-west that Liverpool and Manchester have so much for tourists and that people visiting both cities can enjoy what they have to offer.”

While its not surprising that London snagged the top spot, Edinburgh came in second and cities like Birmingham, Oxford and Aberdeen were named among the top ten on the list.

Top 10 UK destinations for overseas travellers in 2015

1 London
2 Edinburgh
3 Manchester
4 Liverpool
5 Glasgow
6 Birmingham
7 Belfast
8 Brighton
9 Aberdeen
10 Oxford

It is good when any British city does well but I am so happy that things have really turned around in recent years for our great imperial and former industrial cities like Liverpool, Manchester, Belfast and Glasgow when once it seemed they were on a permanent slope of decline and decay.

Tourism (which often follows a great history, of which Britain has plenty) is going to grow enormously over the next few years as middle-classes of hundreds of millions arise in countries like China, India, Malaysia and Brazil. We should be doing our best to attract visitors from these places.

Things really are looking up despite some negatives which need sorting. Britain has overtaken France in GDP rankings, we're set to overtake Germany in the next few years in GDP and population and we're set to be the only European country by 2050 left in the G10 economies. Looking good.

Thoughts?

thms · 29-01-2016, 07:56 PM

we are behind manchester what the frick!

j0rd · 29-01-2016, 08:05 PM

no welsh cities in the top 10 what
surely cardiff has more tourists than brighton, aberdeen and oxford

Samantha · 30-01-2016, 12:06 AM

Never been to Liverpool, was meant to go when my sister went to the open day at the university, but I ended up working. I've been to the top 3 according to that list and Liverpool has always interested me! I'm extremely sad and I would purposely go into the Home Bargains store where all our managers do their training just to see how it all began really; there's about 25 Home Bargains in Liverpool alone so it'd be interesting. Although I would like to go just to see what it's like. I didn't think somewhere like Aberdeen would be so high up though? In terms of tourists you would believe you'd see more coastal areas perhaps, but then again to be a tourist you only need to stay overnight so it could include commuting tourists too.