(TAN): International visitors are pouring into the UK to join the celebrations marking Queen Elizabeth II’s Platinum Jubilee, the World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC) said in a news release.
According to new data from WTTC’s partner ForwardKeys, the number of arriving tourists from key overseas markets and leading Commonwealth countries, such as Singapore, Australia and Canada are all up this week compared to last week by 19%, 6% and 2% respectively.
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And since the Queen’s Golden Jubilee in 2002, analysis by WTTC shows that 20 years later, the number of people employed in the UK Travel & Tourism sector has soared by 49%.
In 2002, 9.1% of jobs in the UK were in travel & tourism. This year the percentage has grown to 11.7%, with a high of 12% in 2019.
In terms of economic value to the UK economy, the UK Travel & Tourism sector has also risen by 13%, from GBP 190 billion to GBP 215 billion this year — and reached GBP 235 billion before the pandemic struck in 2019.
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Julia Simpson, WTTC President & CEO said: “The Queen is a global ambassador and has brought huge wealth to this country. Over the last 20 years she has presided over a period of incredible expansion in travel & tourism — attracting visitors to our shores and inspiring us to visit the world with open hearts and minds.”
