Southampton among top tourist destinations

City among top tourist destinations City among top tourist destinations

SOUTHAMPTON has been named among Britain’s most popular tourist destinations despite the recession.

More than 871,000 visitors flocked to the city during 2011, according to a report by one of the UK’s leading hotel chains, Travelodge.

The study shows that the number of people holidaying in Southampton rose by more than 100,000 since 2007 – an increase of 14 per cent.

The impressive figures placed the city fifth in the list of Britain’s most popular towns and cities, in terms of the percentage increase in visitor numbers.

Southampton was beaten only by York, Skegness, Scarborough and Liverpool, which came out on top of the poll with a 23 per cent rise in tourist numbers.

And the impressive results saw the city beat the likes of London, Newcastle and Birmingham.

Meanwhile, the overall number of people holidaying in the UK increased by three per cent, to 157 million.

Grant Hearn, CEO of Travelodge, said: “Our report confirms UK tourism has successfully weathered the recession and outperformed other key sectors, which is really great news.

“As the UK’s fifth largest sector, we are creating jobs and providing long-lasting career opportunities, something very few industries in the economy can say at present.”

Comments(13)

Big Mac says...
3:40pm Thu 17 Jan 13

Sure it's not the one night stay before departing on a cruise liner brigade that bolsters Travelodge's numbers?

arizonan says...
3:56pm Thu 17 Jan 13

And how many cruise ships a year in Liverpool versus Southampton?

kingnotail says...
4:20pm Thu 17 Jan 13

Big Mac wrote:
Sure it's not the one night stay before departing on a cruise liner brigade that bolsters Travelodge's numbers?
Either that or New Forest visitors? Cos there's f**k all else reason to visit Southampton! More tourists than London? Seriously pull the other one..

southy says...
5:15pm Thu 17 Jan 13

kingnotail wrote:
Big Mac wrote:
Sure it's not the one night stay before departing on a cruise liner brigade that bolsters Travelodge's numbers?
Either that or New Forest visitors? Cos there's f**k all else reason to visit Southampton! More tourists than London? Seriously pull the other one..
Will agree with you as London if I remember rightly is listed 5th in Europe, and Southampton do not even reach going on the list, to get on the list must have over 1.5 million in a year.
our numbers are boosted by over nites stays before joining a ship

cantthinkofone says...
6:04pm Thu 17 Jan 13

"SOUTHAMPTON has been named among Britain’s most popular tourist destinations"

AAAAAaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
aaaaaaaaahahahahahah
ahahahahhahahahahah!
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
!!!!!!!!!!

That's brilliant Echo. Just brilliant. Comedy gold. :-D

As suggested above - cruise liners, base for going *somewhere else* from, or business traffic. It's certainly not the delights of this fair city. Fkn lol.

No byline on the article? Don't blame you lol.

skin2000 says...
6:09pm Thu 17 Jan 13

It must due to the opening of the Sea Life Museum.

hythe knights says...
8:39pm Thu 17 Jan 13

I wonder how many of the so called visitors stayed in the country ?

huckit P says...
8:46pm Thu 17 Jan 13

Yes... come to Southampton and visit Ikea and West Quay. That's if you have enough patience to sit in the traffic queue's at the interminable number of traffic lights and road works.
Visit the Town Quay and get ripped off with the parking charges, Visit Ocean Village (ops, sorry, it isn't there any more). Get clonked on the head by an Itchen Bridge barrier and then enjoy the smells of Weston Shore before going to view the wrecks and scrap yard near Northam at low tide.
Whoopee!
Echo... yer avin a larf, aint ya?

skin2000 says...
9:02pm Thu 17 Jan 13

huckit P wrote:
Yes... come to Southampton and visit Ikea and West Quay. That's if you have enough patience to sit in the traffic queue's at the interminable number of traffic lights and road works.
Visit the Town Quay and get ripped off with the parking charges, Visit Ocean Village (ops, sorry, it isn't there any more). Get clonked on the head by an Itchen Bridge barrier and then enjoy the smells of Weston Shore before going to view the wrecks and scrap yard near Northam at low tide.
Whoopee!
Echo... yer avin a larf, aint ya?
Don't the Metal Mountains on view in Southampton Docks, with forecast of snow, it could become a new winter resort?

G0Rf says...
9:13pm Thu 17 Jan 13

That will be because Southampton FC got promotion to the EPL or because people are on their way to the cruise liners.

Not because we have tourists!
Southampton has nothing to offer a tourist....does it????

kingnotail says...
9:13am Fri 18 Jan 13

G0Rf wrote:
That will be because Southampton FC got promotion to the EPL or because people are on their way to the cruise liners.

Not because we have tourists!
Southampton has nothing to offer a tourist....does it????
Nope, it doesn't. The article actually says Southampton had the fifth largest percentage increase in tourists in 2011, hardly something to shout about when 95% of these will be one night cruise stopovers. If you look at the actual tourist visitor numbers for 2011, Southampton isn't even in the top 20. As you'd expect for a city with no tourist attractions!!

arizonan says...
4:11pm Fri 18 Jan 13

Metal Mountains, people forced to stay a night because of a cruise monopoly, pity this was not mentioned during this newspapers Cruise Wars tirade.

kingnotail says...
3:49pm Sat 19 Jan 13

arizonan wrote:
Metal Mountains, people forced to stay a night because of a cruise monopoly, pity this was not mentioned during this newspapers Cruise Wars tirade.
Once Liverpool gets the cruise turnarounds, Southampton's monopoly will be broken and the city will hopefully be forced to actually find ways of attracting people to visit for reasons other than one-night cruise stopovers. Maybe by actually making something out of its history? This can only be a good thing.

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