Visitor spending plays a large role in just a few ‘destination’ cities in the UK, such as Blackpool, York and Edinburgh. This was set out in Centre for Cities’ latest report and accompanying data tool, highlighting the shape and size of the visitor economy across the UK’s largest cities. But we know the UK loves a countryside break: for a full picture, we cannot ignore the rural visitor economy.
This blog extends some of the analysis in the Spending Time report to include non-urban local authorities. It shows that understanding the rural visitor economy can help contextualise many urban tourism trends in the UK.
The rural visitor economy is based around its natural beauty
Unlike the concentration of the national economy in UK cities, the visitor economy is more evenly spread. The urban visitor economy is only half the national picture – 45 per cent of all overnight visitor spending happens outside the UK’s largest cities. This is roughly in line with the population share in these areas.
But it isn’t evenly spread across rural areas. Just ten non-urban local authorities make up a third of the UK’s rural visitor economy, ranked in Table 1. One in every £13 spent on rural retreats across the UK is in Cornwall, which tops the list. Next is North Yorkshire, containing the Yorkshire Dales and North York Moors. Third is Westmorland and Furness, home to the Lake District.
Table 1: The top rural visitor locations are based on their natural assets
| Rural Local Authority, ranked by size of visitor economy | Overnight visitor spend in rural areas as a share of total overnight spend | National Park or Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) in local authority |
| 1. Cornwall | 7.6 | Cornwall AONB |
| 2. North Yorkshire UA | 4.2 | Yorkshire Dales |
| 3. Westmorland and Furness | 3.0 | Lake District |
| 4. Highland | 2.7 | Cairngorms |
| 5. East Lindsey | 2.5 | Lincolnshire Wolds |
| 6. Somerset UA | 2.5 | Exmoor |
| 7. Dorset | 2.2 | Dorset AONB |
| 8. Gwynedd | 1.6 | Eryri (Snowdonia) |
| 9. Northumberland | 1.5 | Northumberland National Park |
| 10. Cheshire West and Chester | 1.5 |
Source: Fable Data, ONS. Notes: Size of visitor economy measured by amount of spend from overnight visitors in 2023.
The rural visitor economy is centred on natural landscapes. The top nine local authorities (and 18 of the top 20) all contain National Parks or Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty. Only Cheshire West and Chester at number ten, with its historic centre and Chester Zoo, does not. Across the country, 60 per cent of non-urban local authorities contain these designated beauty spots, but these account for 80 per cent of the overnight visitor economy.
Visitors (and their spending) go to the rural places with the best assets and attractions on offer. This is, to understate it, obvious. But this applies to cities too. Much of a city’s visitor offer (or lack thereof) will be inherent, and shifting the needle will be hard. Basildon will not attract visitors with an offer of a historic city centre, the same way that Birmingham will not attract visitors with an offer of rolling hills.
These elements of the visitor offer are largely set in stone, likely explaining much of the variation in visitor numbers across UK cities. Being realistic about what your place can and can’t offer is a key takeaway for places (cities and otherwise) looking to integrate visitor strategy into their economic strategy.
Visitors are more important to many rural areas than even the top destination cities
The visitor economy is also far more important to rural areas that get visitors compared to cities.
Overnight visitors are far more important in local areas. Blackpool, York, and Edinburgh are the only cities that come close to comparing to these visitor destinations. Brighton, the next destination city, squeaks in at 50th.
Blackpool and York act like rural visitor economies because they rely on tourism
Rural areas, unlike cities, are not centres of production. So for the areas that get lots of visitors (many of which are fairly remote), the visitor economy plays a far larger role than destination cities. Cornwall, for example, receives roughly the same amount of visitor spend as Manchester but as a share of all spending the southwestern council is 10 percentage points higher. This is because Manchester receives over five times the total spend Cornwall does – its economy beyond tourism is much stronger.
This fact is set out across destinations in the charts below. It shows the strength of the visitor economy in Edinburgh is in a different local economic context to that of Blackpool with things being different still across rural authorities.
This illustrates that Blackpool and York should not be the aim for cities looking to build their visitor numbers. The role of the visitor economy in these cities is far more similar to Dorset or the Cotswolds than other destination cities like Edinburgh or Cambridge, which have visitors as one string to their bow in their local economies.
Blackpool and York meanwhile have a weak export economy. This reduces the funds brought in from outside the cities, depressing local wages and reducing spending power of those who live and work there. The resemblance of these cities to rural areas is less testament to the strength of their visitor economy, but more an indication that they are not fulfilling their role as cities in the national economy.
Edinburgh benefits from both a large visitor economy and a strong broader economy. And it is very affluent as a result. The goal for Blackpool (and to some extent York) will be to become more like Edinburgh not by doubling down on the visitor economy but by tackling the broader fundamentals that would attract more high skilled businesses in.
