Swindon & Wiltshire News
Tourism worth nearly £400 million a year to Reading – report
Tourism contributes almost £400 million a year to the Reading economy, according to a new report published by REDA, Reading’s Destination and Economy Agency.
The first-ever Economic Impact of Tourism on Reading report estimates that £393 million was spent in the local area as a result of tourism from both day visits and overnight stays.
The report estimates that the Reading visitor economy supports over 6,700 jobs directly and indirectly, providing work to almost six per cent of the local working population.
The retail sector is the greatest beneficiary of visitor spend in Reading, benefitting from over £100 million of spend, closely followed by restaurants, bars and cafes.
Visitors also spend over £42 million in Reading’s hotels and other serviced accommodation providers.
Overall, Reading receives nearly seven million visits a year, with the vast majority of those being day trips which generate a spend of over £180 million.
However, the higher-spending half a million overnight visitors contribute over £120 million in hotel stays, meals, shopping, attraction visits and transport costs.
The biggest reason for making an overnight stay in Reading is leisure (40 per cent) with 27 per cent of overnight stays being made for business reasons.
Day visits are the largest contributor to the Reading visitor economy both numerically and value-wise with almost 6.5 million trips generating £189 million a year.
Alex Brannen, tourism lead at REDA said: “Reading has an amazing tourism offer for visitors, from great shopping to tours of Reading Abbey Ruins and River Thames cruises, excellent conference and meeting venues and the cream of hotels in the Thames Valley.
“Post pandemic, as working styles, this report shows how important both leisure visits and business visitors are to Reading’s economy.
“Reading’s visitor economy is worth nearly £400 million to the town, according to the estimates generated by this report.
“However, the true value of this report will be to provide REDA with a benchmark against which to judge future economic growth relating to tourism and the visitor economy.”
