We embark on an annual collation of regular data providing comparable annual performance, which can be benchmarked against regional competitors. STEAM is a tourism economic impact modelling process which enables us to measure tourism using local data, tourism performance and visitor survey data. The results allow us to monitor the impact of tourism across Northumberland.
The research that we gain from the report allows us to establish the impact of our activity and helps us to develop and grow.
Headline figures for key metrics for 2022 are as follows:
Visitor expenditure
In 2022, the Northumberland visitor economy recorded the highest ever gross value of £1.169billion, an increase of 21% over 2021. When indexed to take the effects of inflation into account, this is just 0.5% lower than pre-COVID levels.
Visitors
The volume of visitors in 2022 increased by 28% to 9.97m, although this remains 6.7% lower than 2019 pre-covid level.
8.047m day visitors (81% of total), up 21% on 2021 but still 8.1% below 2019.
1.925 overnight visitors (19% of total), up29% over 2021 and on par with pre-covid records.
Visitors spent 16.36m days in Northumberland in 2022, 26% higher than 2021.
Employment
12,004 people are directly employed in the sector, up by 7.4% from 2021. Total employment which takes into account jobs in the supply chain grew by 10.7%. The total of 14,683 represents and increase over the 13,076 supported in 2019.
Food and drink is the biggest employment sector with the 4,789 roles correlating to 39.9% of all direct employment.
Spend
Average overnight visitor spend increased from £288.88 to £303.18, 16% higher than the 2019 figure of £260.51. This is worth £786.71m, representing 67% of all spend.
Average day visitor spent of £35.23 is up from £32.76 in 2021, annually worth £382.42m (33% of total). Day visit numbers and spend remain in the region of 8% lower than 2019.
Food and drink is the biggest contributor to direct economic impact (48.3% from £419m in expenditure).
