WALES TOURIST BOARD VISITS TO TOURIST ATTRACTIONS 2003

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WALES TOURIST BOARD VISITS TO TOURIST
ATTRACTIONS 2003
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Background

• Moffat Centre for Travel and Tourism commissioned
  to undertake survey
• Previously done in-house
• Questionnaires sent to operators Oct Dec 2003
  and returned by Feb 2004
• Survey distributed to 479 attractions (businesses
  identified by WTB trawl that fit definition)
• 65 of operators responded

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Summary

• In 2003, nearly 12.5m visits were made to Welsh
  tourist attractions
• Between 2002 and 2003, visits to tourist
  attractions in Wales increased by 6
• Nature based attractions had the most visits with
  nearly 4m visits
• 63 of attractions reported an increase in gross
  revenue
• The average revenue per visitor was 3.95
• The average visits per attraction was 51,000

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Attractions by Category
(Increase between 2002 and 2003)
(Visits 2003)

• Nature-Based 11.8 3.8m
• Animal-Related 7.0 0.5m
• Historic 6.8 2.4m
• Railways 6.6 0.7m
• Workplaces 3.0 0.6m
• Museum/Galleries 1.5 3.7m
• Leisure/Theme park -0.1 0.8m

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Attractions by Location
(Increase between 2002 and 2003)
(Visits 2003)

• Mid Wales 5.7 2.1m
• North Wales 8.2 4.7m
• South East 0.7 2.9m
• South West 8.5 2.7m
• Coastal 13.5 2.2m
• Rural 6.8 6.9m
• Urban 0.0 3.3m

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Average Visits 2003 by category and location
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Seasonality
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Admission Charges
(Increase between 2002 and 2003)
(Visits 2003)

• Free 5.4 5.0m
• Paid 6.3 7.4m
• Average adult admission charge 3.70 (a 2.7
  increase over 2002) Child admission 2.21, a
  1.9 increase
• From 2000-2003 average admission charges
  increased c.14

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Average Visitor Revenue by Category

• About half of revenue comes from admissions, a
  third from retail and 13 from catering
• Paid nature based attractions receive only a
  1/3rd of revenue from admissions and ½ from
  retail
• Railways and leisure/theme parks receive over
  2/3rd of revenue from admissions

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Average Visitor Revenue by Category (additional)
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Average Dwell Time

• The average dwell time at a property is 96
  minutes about 2/3rds of the time being spent at
  the attraction and the remainder split between
  food and shopping
• Auxiliary functions seem most important at
  workplace attractions nearly half of dwell time
  is spent at them (illustrated further in that 70
  of revenue comes from them)

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Employment
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Origin of Visitors
Historic properties have the highest proportion
of overseas visitors, whereas leisure/theme park
visitors are predominantly local.
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Top 10 Paid Attractions
Portmeirion acknowledged to have had a very good
year following the appearance on Cold Feet.
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Top 10 Free Attractions