Useful Info
There are few cities across the world that define the importance of International tourism in terms of facts and figures. No wonder, London is one of them. With a great logistic and infrastructure, impressive cultural heritage and intelligent- strategic planning for this industry the capital of UK carries on to be one of the major players and attracts over 13 million visitors annually.
London tourism infrastructure
Around London there six International airports to serve the city (Heathrow, The City, Gatwick, Luton, Stansted and Southend) and other civilian, less important, ones.
In you account the figures only for Heathrow airport one will be amazed:
● there daily are over 200 thousand passengers arriving(50%) / departing(50%);
● the most significant tourists’ segment consists of transfer passengers; They account for 26 percent of the ground total in 2014 ( 23 million).
● business travellers reached 30 percent of the total arriving/ departing (22 million in 2014) at Heathrow.
London cultural heritage in tourism context
United Kingdom is the most famous monarchy across Europe and the traditional form of governance influenced culture as well. And as we speak about traditions, tourism and British monarchy, million of tourist travel to London annually just to admire changing the guard at Buckingham Palace. Tower of London, Westminster Abbey, the Parliament, navigation and transfers on Thames are also cultural connections that keep visitors present and active in London.
Besides traditional city tours, there is a large range of day trips from London that visitors can enjoy during a short city-break:. Most popular are those to Windsor, Stonehenge, Oxford or Bath, these short tours also re-enhancing the local tourism for the small towns we listed.
Savvy Tourism development
Tradition and development go hand in hand when it comes to UK, especially London. The strategy behind seem to keep traditional attraction and develop modern infrastructure and events, in order to sustain tourism and attraction international travellers. The official city guide (VisitLondon) is continuously updated, so is the infrastructure, while new modern attraction like They Eye, complete the traditional landmarks.
We said savvy. The governance increased tourism with large international events. In 2012 London was the host of the Olympic Games attracting million of visitors, while trillions were keeping the eye on the UK’s capital. In context of context of International tourism is worth mentioning that World Travel Market – London is one of the largest, if not the largest, tourism event worldwide. It is one of the savviest movement in the field for UK’s governance. The most important players and specialists attend the WT Market and are constantly aware of London’s importance for tourism.