UAE tourists spend £200m annually on visits to UK

Dubai: UAE travellers to the UK spend £200 million (Dh1.13 billion) annually, about 40 per cent of the £500 million spent by Middle Eastern travellers, according to the latest study by New West End Company.

The UK is one of the top tourism destinations for GCC residents.

UAE travellers spent an estimated Dh39.5 billion in 5.06 million outbound trips last year, according to a recent industry study by Market Vision, a Dubai-based research company.

"On average, a UAE visitor spends £1,400 in shopping in the UK alone, the second highest after Saudi tourists," Jace Tyrrell, Director of Communications, New West End Company, told Gulf News.

The declining value of the euro and British pound will help boost tourism, going forward, he said.

"Although high spenders are not much concerned about exchange rates, however, it helps. It's good news for Gulf travellers as they will benefit from the favourable exchange rate — which means more goods with the same money."

Tyrrell's company yesterday launched London Luxury — a new initiative in high net worth global shopper tourism.

"We're expecting upwards of 45 million international visitors to come to London's West End in the lead-up to the 2012 Olympics, which is worth an estimated £2.2 billion to the local retail and leisure economy," Tyrrell said on the sidelines of the launch of London Luxury at the Arabian Travel Market.

"London Luxury is a catalyst to capitalise on our key growth markets of high net worth visitors seeking a bespoke programme of privileges and shop and stay packages."

Capitalising on trends

London Luxury has been launched to capitalise on this growing trend, offering a programme of bespoke personalised shopping tours and unique shop and stay, packaged with London's most discerning hotels and restaurants.

"We have spent the last two years researching our key markets including the Middle Eastern visitors, understanding their shopping intentions and retail and leisure preferences from high street and luxury retail brands, hotels and cultural attractions," Tyrrell said.

Alongside the marketing campaign, New West End Company is lobbying UK government departments to simplify the visa process for long-haul visitors.

Reducing the cost and complexity of applying for a travel visa will make the UK more competitive with other European markets.

In 2008, France saw over six times more Chinese visitors than the UK with restrictive visa regulations estimated to cost West End retailers tens of millions of pounds every year.

Nigel Dasler, vice-president of Sales at Global Blue, the market leader in tax free shopping, said: "Evidence so far this year suggests Middle East shoppers will continue to make up the biggest market share of international visitors buying almost exclusively luxury goods."

Mapping visitors

Top Six Markets Average transaction sizes Most rapid growth of International shoppers

MIDDLE EAST* £1,224 (+2%) China(+128%)CHINA £759 (+34%) Singapore (+128%)RUSSIAN FED £946 (+4%) Thailand (+99%)NIGERIA £565 (+16%) Hong Kong (+93%)UNITED STATES £488 (0%) Japan (+72%)HONG KONG £630 (+16%) Malaysia (+58%)

*Top four Middle Eastern markets by £ spend: United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Qatar and Iran

— Figures provided by Global Blue