Figures from VisitBritain released on Thursday reveal the increasing value to the economy of int'l visitors attending football matches in Britain. VisitBritain's research report, Football tourism scores for Britain, shows that the 800,000 int'l visitors to Britain last year who went to a football match spent a total of £684M ($1B) during their time in the country. This represents a 15% rise, or an increase of £89M ($134M), compared to when the research was last conducted in '10. While the overall global average spend on an int'l visit to Britain in '14 was £636, those visits including football match attendance had an average spend of £855. It is not just leisure visitors who enjoy football matches; out of the 800,000 total, more than 40,000 int'l business visitors went to a football match during their stay last year. The findings show that football is the number one sporting draw for int'l tourists to Britain. Of those visitors who gave their primary journey purpose to the U.K. as "watching sport," 73% said they had attended a football match (EPL).
