Sefton tourism worth a staggering £555m to the local economy

The findings are contained in the latest independent research for 2017 commissioned by the Visitor Economy Team at Liverpool City Region Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP).

On a local level, some of the key findings for Sefton include:

• Visitor Numbers – 9.1m – 4.2% increase
• Staying visitors – 755,000 – 4.6% increase
• Economic Impact – £555m – 7% increase
• Total Employment – 6,755 – 4.8% increase

These figures are published by the STEAM (Scarborough Tourism Economic Activity) model, which is used throughout the UK tourism industry to measure economic impact of the visitor economy, and International Passenger Survey.

The results are calculated using a range of tourism inputs including hotel occupancy, transport figures, attractions attendance figures and event figures.

Long term trends show that from 2009 to 2017, there has been 66% growth in the economic value of the visitor economy to the Liverpool City Region, rising from £2.73bn to £4.53bn – this is equivalent to an average growth of around 6.5% per year. Over the same period there has been an increase in the number of day and staying visitors, rising annually from 52.3m in 2009 to 64.2m in total by 2017.

Cllr Marion Atkinson, Sefton Council’s Cabinet Member Regeneration and Skills, said: “These figures are hugely impressive and clearly show that tourism across Sefton continues to rise and the borough really is open for all businesses.

“Visitors come from all over the UK and beyond to Sefton and our attractions and events programme really stand out with the Open Golf Championship at Royal Birkdale in 2017 a perfect example of this.

“Tourism is crucial to the success of our borough and the wider Liverpool City Region supporting thousands of jobs while generating millions of pounds to the local economy.”

Peter Sandman, Head of Visitor Economy for the LEP, added: “In the ten years since Liverpool became European Capital of Culture, the city, and region as a whole has seen the visitor economy experience a healthy growth and the sector continues to contribute significantly to the region’s economy.

“It is particularly encouraging to see our overseas visitors staying longer, as well as the number of jobs supported by the sector continuing to grow – which covers a wide range of employment options across accommodation, food and drink, recreation and retail.”

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