August record-breaking month for English day trips
According to VisitEngland, Brits spent a record-breaking £5.5b on day trips across England in August; the highest spend recorded for a single month since the survey began in 2011.
August also saw the highest number of day trips taken in any month since 2012, with 151 million day trips across England, up 14% on August 2015.
The figures bring overall domestic tourism day trips in England from January to August to 988 million, up 14% on the same period last year with spend up 9% to £32.2b, both records for a first eight months of the year.
North-east England saw the largest percentage increase (34%) in the number of day trips January to August with 52.8 million trips, compared to the same period last year, followed by the West Midlands with 95.1 million trips, up 30%.
The East Midlands saw the largest spending percentage increase, with day trippers spending £3b from January to August, up 31%, followed by the South East, up 29% to £5.6b. London had the largest spend on day trips overall with £7.3b.
The top journey purposes for day trips were to ‘go out for a meal' followed by ‘taking part in leisure activities' including walking, cycling and golf, and ‘visiting friends and family'.
VisitEngland chief executive Sally Balcombe said: "It is fantastic to see that more of us are getting out and experiencing the huge range of quality destinations and tourism products on offer right across the country. England is packed full of incredible experiences that you can only get here and we look forward to continuing to work with the tourism industry to develop England's competitive tourism offer, get more people out exploring the country and drive growth across all the regions."
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