30% more Russians in Great Britain

133 thousand of Russians visited Great Britain during the first 9 month of 2010.  This is 30% more than within the same period of 2009. Expenditures of the tourists increased by 28,8% from 104 mio pounds to 134, said British Tourist Authority VisitBritain.

Unfortunately the level of 2008 won’t be reached. During pre-crises year Great Britain was visited by 208 thousand of Russian tourists and they spent 179 mio pounds. According to Visit Britain the highest increase rate was registered in business trips sector. Compared to the previous year period their number increased by 64% from 25 to 41 thousand. At the same time the number of vacation trips grew by 31% from 38 to 50 thousand.

London is still the most popular region of the United Kingdom, the city is visited by 62% of all Russian guests, 27% tourists decide on other British cities. Scotland is frequented by 12,4% and Wales -  by 2% tourists.

According to the data of VisitBritain 40% of Russian guests visited Great Britain in 2009-2010 for tourism reasons, 30% for business and 8% for education purposes.

In total Great Britain received around 22,5 mio foreign tourists during the first 9 months of 2010.