Number of tourists visiting the North East has increased

New figures show the number of tourists visiting the North East has increased by 23% to 460,000. These figures are for January through to September last year.

Nearly half a million international tourists came to the region in those nine months. More international tourists are travelling across English regions than ever before with some areas showing double digit growth in visitor numbers.

Spending by international visitors across the regions was up 4% to £5.8 billion compared to the same period in 2014.

Tourism Minister David Evennett said:

Tourism is Britain's seventh largest export industry and third largest service sector.

The industry is also a major job creator, for example every 22 additional Chinese visitors that come to Britain create an additional job in the sector. Inbound tourism is worth more than £26 billion to the UK economy.