UK - A one city country?

[Guest]

...Maybe Edinburgh, who knows. ...

You'd be lucky to find a local on the Royal Mile in August. It's dense with tourists most of the time.

[Stoatwobbler]

I am of the view that apart from London, there isn't much for tourists to come and visit us for. The next biggest cities are Birmingham and Leeds, then Sheffield and Manchester, I can't see many people coming to visit those cities, they are hardly covered in great places.

 

Maybe Edinburgh, who knows.

 

But really, I wonder if anyone ever visits the UK for a "holiday" to often visit many other places?

 

Cities are not the only places a tourist would want to visit, here or in any other country.

[Cyclone]

I am of the view that apart from London, there isn't much for tourists to come and visit us for. The next biggest cities are Birmingham and Leeds, then Sheffield and Manchester, I can't see many people coming to visit those cities, they are hardly covered in great places.

 

Maybe Edinburgh, who knows.

 

But really, I wonder if anyone ever visits the UK for a "holiday" to often visit many other places?

 

Is attractiveness to tourists defined by size? If so then some of the Indian cities must be fascinating...

 

York isn't large, but I believe it's got a good tourist industry, with lots of historical things to see and do.

 

Sheffield isn't a tourist destination, it never has been, probably never will be. That's true of most non capital european cities though isn't it? Can you even name the 4th or 5th largest city in France, and would you go there as a tourist?

I looked it up, Toulouse. Not well known as a touristy place...

 

---------- Post added 24-11-2014 at 09:44 ----------

 

Why not then continue to compare them to the visited cities across the world and you shall see that the OP is right.

 

He is not talking about cities that are "lovely to visit" (ridiculously subjective and impossible to measure), but the cities that people from abroad come to holiday inwhich is what the thread is about.

 

I love Brighton, would live there in a heart beat, but it isn't really w player when it comes to international tourism.

 

Why would you expect our largest cities to be tourist destinations?

 

Like I've just said about France, the same applies to cities across europe. Who goes to Frankfurt for a holiday, or Seville or Porto or Brno.

[donuticus]

Birmingham has undergone a massive change in the last thirty years.

 

 

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/forget-london-visit-birmingham-new-york-magazine-tells-readers-that-englands-second-city-outdoes-the-capital-8916466.html

[aaron1867]

My point being is that if the UK has 1000 visitors/tourists, how many of them would you expect going to be visiting London? I would say 65% of them.

 

For me as an individual, if I am visiting a city in the UK for a "break" I only tend to go to London. Everyone to their own though, I appreciate that.

[truman]

My point being is that if the UK has 1000 visitors/tourists, how many of them would you expect going to be visiting London? I would say 65% of them.

 

For me as an individual, if I am visiting a city in the UK for a "break" I only tend to go to London. Everyone to their own though, I appreciate that.

 

You don't know what you're missing..we've had breaks in Stratford on Avon,Chester,Worcester,Oxford,Bath,Northumberland,Cumbria.well, all over really,,there's loads to see...

[Cyclone]

My point being is that if the UK has 1000 visitors/tourists, how many of them would you expect going to be visiting London? I would say 65% of them.

 

For me as an individual, if I am visiting a city in the UK for a "break" I only tend to go to London. Everyone to their own though, I appreciate that.

 

So what, this is just like most European countries.

 

That doesn't make the topic title correct. A one city country, from the point of view of a tourist lacking any imagination, is quite different from "a one city country".

[Kthebean]

I am of the view that apart from London, there isn't much for tourists to come and visit us for. The next biggest cities are Birmingham and Leeds, then Sheffield and Manchester, I can't see many people coming to visit those cities, they are hardly covered in great places.

 

Maybe Edinburgh, who knows.

 

But really, I wonder if anyone ever visits the UK for a "holiday" to often visit many other places?

 

Of course most people travel to London, Heathrow is the hub for long haul flights, no?

 

Many spend some time there and visit another city – Liverpool, York, Canterbury, Oxford, Edinburgh – while they are here.

[alchresearch]

I am of the view that apart from London, there isn't much for tourists to come and visit us for. The next biggest cities are Birmingham and Leeds, then Sheffield and Manchester, I can't see many people coming to visit those cities, they are hardly covered in great places.

 

According to Liverpool LEP:

 

Liverpool in 2013 was the 5th most popular destination for international visitors with 562,000 staying visits up from 550,000 in 2012 (International Passenger Survey) and was 5th most popular destination for all domestic visitors (1.68m overnight visits). It is also 6th for pure holiday trips (703,000) and 6th for business tourism (289,000)

 

and:

 

The new figures, released by the Office for National Statistics as part of the annual International Passenger Survey, also reveal that the overall number of international visits to Greater Manchester increased by seven per cent, up from 1,093,000 in 2012 to 1,171,000 last year.

 

Visits to the Manchester specifically grew by six per cent to 988,000.

 

The same data showed Manchester is the second most popular destination in England for overseas tourists.

 

While London is still by far the biggest magnet for foreign visitors, with 16.7 million staying at least one night last year, Manchester attracted 988,000 people, followed by Birmingham (941,000) and Liverpool (562,000).

 

Across the entire UK, only Edinburgh saw more overseas visitors, with 1.3m.

 

http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/business/tourism-data-shows-surge-bric-7240717

Edited November 24, 2014 by alchresearch

[stressconsul]

Sorry to be a google bore but: "the Peak District being the most popular- claimed to be the second most visited National Park in the world, after Mount Fuji in Japan, with over 22 million visitors annually" - Wiki.