Each month the Scattered Clouds blog takes a look at the wonderful world of tourism through a data and evidence-led lens, all in pursuit of transforming tourism sector data into insight of course!

Is the amount a visitor spends indicative of their worth? - November 2025

Rather than immediately offering up an answer to the question I’ve posed in the title of this month’s blog here’s a follow-up question; is a visitor who spends £1,000 on their trip worth twice that of a visitor who spends £500?

Arithmetically the answer is yes, but philosophically things are perhaps rather more nuanced.

Let us briefly explore a few of the factors that underpin how much a visitor will spend, with one of the most influential of these being length of stay. Unsurprisingly a visitor here for two weeks of explorations will tend to spend rather more than their counterpart visiting for a weekend.

Another important consideration is the underlying trip purpose, which feeds through to typical length of stay and to how much will, on average, be spent per day, with these two elements combining to deliver overall expenditure during the trip.

Last year the typical inbound visitor here for business stayed 4.7 nights, spent £184 per night and £867 per visit. Those visiting for a holiday stayed a little longer at 5.9 nights but spent a little less per night at £160, leading to an average spend per visit of £951. Then there’s the third big visitor segment, those here to visit friends or relatives, and this cohort stayed even longer on average at 9.7 nights but spent just £60 per night, resulting in average spend per visit of £579.

In addition to how long the visit lasts and its underlying motivation, the amount spent will be influenced by where the visitor goes, with some elements of the basket of goods and services that typically account for visitor spending being more expensive in some locations than others. For example, according to the England Occupancy Survey the average daily room rate for hotels in Greater London this August was £212, whereas in the West Midlands it was £82.

Reflecting both the factors already highlighted but also bringing in its own influence on how much a visitor is likely to spend is where they are visiting from. Last year the typical inbound holiday visitor from Germany spent £750 during their trip at £117 per night, whereas the average holiday visitor from the USA spent £1,473 at £221 per night.

That’s enough stats for now, back to the substance of the discussion as to whether visitor spending is equivalent to the worth we should place on each visitor.

An important aspect of this is what the visitor is spending their money on. A credit card statement might show that a Chinese or Saudi visitor spent a hefty sum on purchasing an item of jewellery or fashion, and while we might initially assume that the full value of this expenditure is a plus for the British economy we need to pause and reflect on whether said item of jewellery or fashion was manufactured here or elsewhere. If the high rolling visitor shopping in London or a well-known designer outlet village had purchased a fancy watch made in Switzerland or pair of designer shoes manufactured in Italy a term often cited by economists is highly pertinent, and that term is leakage.

Leakages occur from the domestic economy if money seeps out due to it being saved (and therefore not spent), being paid in tax to the government, or courtesy of being spent on imported items.

Probably the topic for a future blog, but with Britain not currently offering tax-free shopping to inbound visitors one entity that will be delighted by the purchase of high value goods is HM Treasury, courtesy of the VAT receipts it will deliver.

Returning to our lower spending holiday visitor from Germany who may not be brandishing their credit card quite as much, but perhaps they will venture to Wales and decide to buy a modestly priced handcrafted item from a local artisan. In pure monetary terms it may cost far less than the Swiss watch but the revenue its purchase generates remains in the local economy rather than zipping off to a foreign business, plus if the artisan has a relatively modest annual turnover below the VAT threshold the taxman doesn’t snaffle a chunk of the proceeds.

It isn’t just whether the products being purchased have been imported or made locally, another dimension of a visitor’s worth is their tendency to explore, and therefore spend beyond so-called honeytrap locations, thereby helping to sustain visitor economy businesses that trade in less high-profile destinations whose profit margin may be rather thin.

Close to two-thirds of holiday visitors from Ireland went to parts of parts of Britain that weren’t London last year, with more than half of all Dutch holiday visitors doing likewise. Contrast this with more than four-fifths of holiday visitors from Saudi Arabia spending all of their time in London.

As well as seeking regional spread there has been a long-standing desire to bring about seasonal spread of inbound tourism. There will always be more holiday visitors in summer than winter, but with Britain offering a wide range of visitor experiences it is not fanciful to seek to attract demand outside of the peak summer months.

As such those visitors who are more sanguine about British weather and shorter daylight in midwinter offer a fillip to the industry distinct to those who feel that July or August is the only time of year suitable for a trip to Britain. Those visiting at quieter times of year will likely find they are spending less on items such as accommodation, and while this may appear to negatively impact average visitor spend it will almost certainly ensure they depart with a more favourable perception of Britain’s value for money offering than those heading back home in August. In turn those with a positive view as to our affordability as a visitor destination are more inclined to visit again in the future than those who feel they have been somewhere that is pricey.

£1,000 spent by one visitor may well not be worth twice the £500 spent by another, it very much depends on what the money gets spent on, where, and even when it is spent. So, my synopsis is that the amount a visitor spends is not necessarily the best (and definitely not the only) indicator of how much they are worth, we should take a broader view encompassing a range of variables associated with their trip.