VisitEngland, the national tourist board, has released figures revealing that 5.4 million domestic overnight trips were taken in England in January this year - an increase of 5% compared to 2011.

The latest results from the Great Britain Tourism Survey also showed that spend has increased by 16 per cent for the same period, totalling £877million.

Considering the whole of Great Britain, the total number of domestic overnight trips taken in January this year also rose by 5 per cent compared to 2012, and total spend rose by 10 per cent.

Although this early growth means a positive start to the year, VisitEngland cautioned that it could have been influenced by the fact that this January was the mildest since 2008. In January 2011, travel to parts of the country was still affected by snow.

James Berresford, VisitEngland’s Chief Executive, commented:
“This positive start to 2012 follows on from the success of 2011, during which domestic overnight trips rose by 9 per cent for the whole year. We are working very hard with tourism businesses across England to maintain this momentum, and to ensure that the industry can benefit from the opportunities presented by the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee, the Torch Relay and the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games.  This is an unprecedented year – it is our job to inspire Brits that now is the time to take a holiday at home.”