The Other Side Of Festival Tourism

A Visit Britain report also claims foreign visitors were responsible for 20 percent of the £2.2 billion spent on last year’s UK outdoor events and other shows.

It says 6.5 million people traveled to music festivals and concerts in Britain last year.

About £1.3 billion was spent on tickets, transport and accommodation, with another £914 million going to food, drink and other purchases.

Music tourists from overseas spend an average of £910 while attending festivals and £602 while attending concerts.

Although music-related events support 24,000 UK jobs, the report says more should be done to attract foreign visitors.

Visit Britain, the government’s tourism agency, said its research showed the pulling power of UK music and its potential to boost tourism.

It called for a strategy to pull in more overseas music fans and for towns and cities to copy Liverpool’s efforts to capitalise on the Beatles.

“This will act as a catalyst for us all to ramp up our activity and forge better relationships with festival organizers, promoters, venues and producers,” said Visit Britain chief exec Sandie Dawe.

Visit Britain also said the figures, which were compiled by Oxford Economics, were conservative because they only included ticketed events at venues with capacities of 1,500 or more.