Strong tourism marketing and a weak pound led to a boom in domestic holidays over the summer.
UK hoteliers enjoyed encouraging growth, helped by a significant rise in hotel demand from domestic travellers taking staycations, the latest data from the Expedia group has reveals.
Demand for trips made by domestic travellers increased by more than 20% in the peak July to September period over summer 2016, with several UK holiday regions and cities seeing strong growth.
International and domestic demand for the counties of Kent, Surrey, Essex and Yorkshire, alongside the popular tourism destinations of the Cotswolds and the Lake District and Cumbria, all showed double digit increases in demand of over 20%.
Edinburgh emerged as the second most popular destination in the UK overall after London, a 5% year-on-year growth in demand, with Glasgow reaching the number five spot.
In its celebratory year as the UK’s ‘City of Culture’, Hull also enjoyed strong growth from domestic travellers. A calendar of events and activities throughout the summer helped boost demand by almost 80% year-on-year. This follows a year-on-year increase of over 60% the previous quarter to June.
UK hoteliers saw positive growth from overseas travellers, with demand from Spain up almost 185%; Ireland up almost 95%; Brazil up 115% and the US up 40%.
The average daily rate for hotel rooms in the UK rose overall, notably with travellers from Poland, Austria, India, Thailand and Australia spending more, according to the research.
Domestic travellers booked their stays with the shortest booking window of less than 30 days, with travellers from New Zealand (73 days), Austria (70 days), Canada (66 days), Germany (64 days), Switzerland (62 days) and Brazil (58 days) booking the farthest in advance.
Expedia UK & Ireland market management director Julie Cheneau said: “Overall our hotel partners enjoyed a strong summer season, with impressive growth across the board when compared to the same period last year.
“UK hoteliers have benefitted from an ongoing and strong marketing campaign from VisitBritain highlighting events and activities across the nation. This, likely along with a weaker pound, means both international and domestic travellers are choosing to holiday in the UK.
“Our data reveals that we are successfully working with our hotel partners to increase demand from key international markets where visitors are more likely to spend more on rooms and other services, as well as stay longer.”