{"id":471,"date":"2013-06-20T11:23:09","date_gmt":"2013-06-20T11:23:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.holiday-weather.com\/news\/?p=471"},"modified":"2014-07-14T10:06:23","modified_gmt":"2014-07-14T10:06:23","slug":"britains-gardens-and-parks-prove-a-big-hit-with-tourists","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.holiday-weather.com\/news\/britains-gardens-and-parks-prove-a-big-hit-with-tourists\/","title":{"rendered":"UK gardens and parks prove a big hit with tourists"},"content":{"rendered":"

At long last, Britain’s gardens are well and truly in bloom, and regardless of our rather unpredictable weather<\/a>, VisitBritain have revealed that a staggering \u00a37.8 billion was spent by tourists enjoying a garden in the UK, with a large chunk coming from younger visitors.<\/p>\n

A VisitBritain<\/a> study identified that of the 31 million people who tend to visit Britain each year, around a third (11.1 million) enjoy a park or garden, with around 2.4 million aged between 25-34 opposed to just 1.4 million aged between 55-64. There were 2.1 million visits from those aged 35-44 involving parks or gardens, while nearly three-quarters of a million were aged 65+. Overall those aged under-35 were particularly likely to visit a park or garden, with 41 per cent of visits doing so compared to 33 per cent of visits from those aged over 35.<\/p>\n

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The latest figures confirm that going to a park or garden is one of the most popular activities for our overseas guests, accounting for 36 per cent of all visitors, placing only behind eating out, going to pubs and shopping. It means visitors are surprisingly more likely to spend time in a park or garden than a museum, castle, historic house or art gallery.<\/p>\n

Over half of all \u2018holiday\u2019 visitors (54%) explore our green surrounds each year, a positive indication that admiration is growing across the world for Britain\u2019s attractive scenery and beautifully crafted gardens. It remains an activity which visitors can enjoy whatever their age group, from Bodnant Gardens <\/a>with spectacular views across Snowdonia<\/a> to the intriguing Muncaster<\/a> in the Lake District or the world famous world-famous historic gardens at Inverewe<\/a> in the Scottish Highlands. London has also just celebrated 100 years of the RHS Chelsea Flower Show <\/a>and is home to eight Royal Parks and the globally acknowledged UNESCO World Heritage Site of Kew Gardens<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Unsurprisingly the most popular time of year to visit Britain’s gardens is the summer months<\/a>, with July to September accounting for 4 million of the annual tally. By contrast, just 1.6 million visited gardens in the first quarter of 2011. The reason visitors come here plays a strong role in determining what they do during their trip with tourists on \u2018holiday\u2019 making up the bulk of visits (6.4 million) followed a distant second by those here to see their friends and family (3.2 million).<\/p>\n

Tourists from France<\/a>, our largest market, seem to prefer our parks and gardens over any other country with 1.25 million visits, spending \u00a3406 million in the process. Visitors from the US<\/a> are second in the table with 1.23 million visits, but they spend nearly triple the amount of the French during their visits, at around \u00a31.1 billion. Completing the top three are tourists from Germany<\/a>, 1.15 million were enchanted by our array of natural beauty and also spent more in the UK than top placed France at \u00a3629 million.<\/p>\n

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Sandie Dawe, Chief Executive of VisitBritain said: \u201cWe\u2019ve completed three big pieces of research which all indicate that our parks, gardens and natural beauty are a valuable tourism asset, admired across the world and enjoyed by our visitors.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s hugely encouraging to see our gardens are as popular with the younger generation as they are with 55-plus age groups. Post-Olympic Games perceptions of Britain have shifted for the better and time spent in any of our glorious parks is something to be cherished- especially when the sun is out.\u201d<\/p>\n

VisitBritain<\/a> is the national tourism agency, responsible for marketing Britain worldwide & developing Britain\u2019s visitor economy.<\/p>\n

Go garden hopping abroad <\/strong><\/p>\n

Fancy returning the favour but with guaranteed sunshine to boot? Sicily<\/a> is home to some seriously beautiful gardens, as resplendent and splendid as they come, plus it\u2019s a lovely 26\u00b0C on average <\/a>right now. And they may be better known for their stunning beaches and buzzing party vibe, however the Canary Islands<\/a> also pack a punch when it comes to beautiful botany and gorgeous gardens and parks. Gran Canaria <\/a>has its Viera y Clavijo Botanical Garden, while tourists in Tenerife <\/a>in search of tropical plants and a magical setting should head to Jard\u00edn de Aclimataci\u00f3n de La Orotava.<\/p>\n

<\/strong>Lanzarote <\/a>has its own unique natural flora and fauna, and its prime garden \u2013 The Cactus Garden – symbolises the country\u2019s distinct arid climate and volcanic origin. The wonderfully unusual garden, which is located in the town of Guatiza was one of artist C\u00e9sar Manrique\u2019s last works.<\/p>\n

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Oasis Park in Fuerteventura <\/a>is truly enormous and houses one of Europe\u2019s largest cactus and tropical plant collections. La Gomera<\/a>, arguably one of the most stunning islands in the Spanish archipelago, is where you\u2019ll find Vallehermoso Botanical Garden, an area of more than 16,000 square metres and is the place to go for a wide variety of orchids and other exotic flora. Last but certainly not least, La Palma<\/a>\u2019s Maroparque botanical and animal park in Bre\u00f1a Alta is a firm family favourite and combines a fantastic collection of indigenous plants and tropical species with cheeky monkeys and wee baby wallabies.<\/p>\n

For more information on these gardens, click here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

At long last, Britain’s gardens are well and truly in bloom, and regardless of our rather unpredictable weather, VisitBritain have revealed that a staggering \u00a37.8 billion was spent by tourists enjoying a garden in the UK, with a large chunk coming from younger visitors. A VisitBritain study identified that of the 31 million people who […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"post_views_count":1090,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[169,129],"class_list":["post-471","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-weather","tag-resort-uk","tag-uk"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.holiday-weather.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/471","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.holiday-weather.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.holiday-weather.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.holiday-weather.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.holiday-weather.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=471"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.holiday-weather.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/471\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1842,"href":"https:\/\/www.holiday-weather.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/471\/revisions\/1842"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.holiday-weather.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=471"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.holiday-weather.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=471"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.holiday-weather.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=471"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}