London Olympics boost to British regional tourism

With the latest threat of transport strikes, concerns with overcrowding and inflated hotel prices in London during the Olympic period, it appears that tourists may instead be heading to other regions of the UK this summer, according to Skyscanner.

When it was first announced that London had won the bid to host the 2012 Olympics, many people across the UK felt it would have little positive impact on those outside of the capital.

However, recent research conducted by travel search website Skyscanner reveals that inbound tourism across the UK is set to benefit, with a massive influx of foreign visitors to regional destinations.

The north west of England and Scotland will profit most from foreign visitors during the games, with Australians and Canadians heading to these areas in their droves.

Flight searches to regional airports from these nations are up 33 per cent and 13 per cent respectively with Manchester, Edinburgh and Glasgow all proving particularly popular.

Northern Ireland will also welcome more visitors during the games, with Canadians showing huge interest in visiting the country. Belfast Airport is showing an increase in searches from airports across Canada of 22 per cent year on year. Research by Skyscanner also shows that popular tourist attractions in the midlands and the south west England will welcome many more foreign visitors this year with visitors from Spain and Switzerland heading to the regions during the Olympics.

Flight searches to airports across these regions from these countries are up 25 per cent and 24 per cent respectively.

Interestingly, the residents of Leeds will be welcoming Cypriots to the city, as searches to Leeds Bradford Airport from the sun-kissed island are up a staggering 32 per cent.

Gareth Williams, co-founder and CEO at Skyscanner said: “It’s great to see that so many international tourists are planning to take advantage of the low cost fares on offer to visit other parts of Britain during the Games.”