Olympics boost as VisitBritain finds 77% of foreign tourists return to the UK

More than three-quarters of the 30 million travellers who came here in 2009 were making return trips, according to the exclusive VisitBritain research. The figures, gathered from interviews with 50,000 overseas tourists as part of the Government's International Passenger Survey showed that 77% had been to the UK at least once in the previous 10 years - and often many times. News that such a high proportion had come back raises hopes that people who are inspired to visit Britain for the first time by the 2012 Games -particularly younger visitors from the high growth tourism countries - will also become regular returners. The research also revealed residents of which countries were most – and least – likely to make a return trip to the UK. For example: • Travellers from the beautiful landlocked Grand Duchy of Luxembourg are the most loyal to Britain - 96% of those that visited the UK last year have dropped in at least once during the previous decade. • Residents of the Republic of Ireland are second most loyal, on 95%. • People from the wealthy United Arab Emirates are third, with 92% being regular visitors to the United Kingdom. • At the other end of the table, the travellers who are least likely to be return visitors are people from Chile and Taiwan only 33% of whom have been here before, and Argentina on 34%. VisitBritain's Director of Strategy and Communications, Patricia Yates, said: "Considering the number of worldwide destinations available to overseas travellers, and the fierce competition for overseas visitors, it is very encouraging to know that that 77% of the 30 million overseas tourists who came to the UK last year had already visited in the last ten years and chosen to return to Britain. "It is an important sign that Britain is to generate a sustained uplift in tourism after the Olympics."