Tourism in the UK

The tourism industry in the UK brings in just above 29 million tourists each year.  This makes the UK the 8^th biggest tourist destination in the world.  Foreign tourists spent $17.2 billion in the UK in 2011.  VisitBritain, an online website containing data by the British Tourist Authority, states that the United States is the UK’s most valuable inbound market.  However, 21.5 million European visitors overwhelm the 2.1 million American and Canadian visitors.  Summer months, specifically August, are the most traveled months for tourists in the UK.  Domestic tourism remains the biggest component to UK travel.  Statistics from 2009 show that domestic tourists spend £21,881 million among 126 million trips that were made by tourists.

Big portions of the major tourist attractions in the UK are in England.  About 5.8 million tourists visit a castle, 5 million tourists visit historical houses, and 6.4 million tourists visit religious buildings or monuments.  One extremely visited tourist attraction is the Tower of London.  The Tower of London is a historical castle on the River Thames in central London.  Two more main attractions in London are Buckingham Palace and “Big Ben”.  Big Ben is the nickname for the clock tower on the north end of the Palace of Westminster.  

Big Ben

Tower of London

Buckingham Palace

There are 15 national parks throughout the UK. There are 10 in England, 2 in Scotland, and 3 in Wales.  The biggest national park in the UK is Cairngorms in Scotland. 

Cairngorms-Scotland

The UK is extremely rich in biodiversity.  The UK contains a variety of mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, insects, and fish. 

      

The top five visited museums in the UK are in Great Britain.  The British Museum, Tate Modern, National Gallery, and Natural History Museum all took in over 5 million visitors in 2013.  The V&A museum in South Kensington took in just over 3.2 visitors.  The British museum is dedicated to human history and culture.  The permanent collection in the museum consists of roughly 8 million pieces of work.  This is among the largest collections in the world, originating from all continents.

The British Museum

http://www.visitbritain.org/insightsandstatistics/visitoreconomyfacts/index.aspx

http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/places/United_Kingdom

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