Tourists spend more in Wokingham than anywhere else in the country – and twice as much as they do when the visit Reading.
Almost 40% of visitors come to Wokingham for six hours or more and spend £69.95 when they do so. Just over a quarter – 27.5% – stay in Reading for the same period of time, spending just £35.50 as a result.
Even though Wokingham is a tourist hotspot, just 7.2% of the borough’s working population are employed in tourism related jobs.
The surprising figures were revealed in new data released by the Office of National Statistics in an Atlas of Tourism. The survey presents a snapshot of every county and unitary authority in England and Wales and is presented from data collated between 2011 and 2013 and are three year averages.
And the fascinating figures don’t stop there.
The survey went on to explore where the borough’s visitors come from.
Research by the ONS reveals that the presence of the University of Reading in Wokingham is one of the reasons for attracting international visitors to the area.
And when it comes to all visitors, just under 40% of visitors who stayed in Wokingham borough overnight came from Europe, while 15% were residents of Australasia and 14.5% were from the Americas.
These overnight visitors would spend, on average, £94.74, and of these visits almost nine in 10 (87.4%) were for one to three nights, with the remainder being for stays of four to seven nights.
However, despite the spendings, the ONS did not decree that Wokingham borough is a holiday hotspot – the nearest one to the borough is Greater London, an amalgamation of several unitary authorities.
You can see the data for yourself at the Office of National Statistics website.