Tourists spend £1bn in Cheshire

Dec 12 2007 by Liam Murphy, Liverpool Daily Post

TOURISM generated more than £1bn last year for Cheshire according to figures just released.

The importance of visitors to the Cheshire/Warrington economy was underlined by the estimated 38m people who made the county a destination, figures which include shopping and eating out.

Chris Brown, chief executive of the tourism board Visit Chester & Cheshire, said they aimed to make Chester “a must-see European city by 2015”.

He said: “These are significant figures that illustrate just how dependent the sub region is on a thriving visitor economy – it is one of our biggest economic sectors.

“Any individual or organisation that works within the visitor economy needs to acknowledge the importance of raising the bar on their performance to keep pace with rising visitor expectations and ensure that we’re in a position to capitalise on future growth.”

During 2006 tourism to the county generated an income of over £1.4bn and between 2003 and 2006, the value of tourism to the local economy grew by nearly 4% in real terms.

The tourism research comes just a couple of weeks before Liverpool becomes the Capital of Culture for 2008.

The biggest spend by visitors to Cheshire and Warrington was on shopping (£355m), followed by food and drink (£239m) and accommodation (£153m). A further £80m was spent by visitors on recreation.

Mr Brown said Cheshire’s success originated from a wide variety of attractions ranging from retail such as Cheshire Oaks and Chester’s shops, Chester Zoo, and the city’s food and literary festival.

But he said they were also working closely with the organisers of Capital of Culture which is expected to bring even more visitors to the wider region.

He said: “The Cheshire Year of the Garden is a different offer to what people will get in Liverpool. We know people will stay in Chester and travel into Liverpool, and that is what we want.”