Since the Covid pandemic, it's been recommended as one of the best places to visit in the world by the New York Times, and its have been named among the most beautiful in Europe and even the world.
And now, the annual STEAM report on the economic impact of tourism in Northumberland has been released, showing that the value of the county's tourist economy doubled in 2021 compared to 2020, with the value of the visitor economy being £858.95 million. Employment has also bounced back in that time, with a more than 60% recovery on those directly employed by tourism in the country since 2020.
The report also demonstrated a stronger recovery in spend than visitor numbers, driven by an increase in spend by staying visitors, indicating that more people stayed and spent more while visiting. As expected, the results continue to remain below that of records achieved in 2019 and the value of the visitor economy in 2021 was still 21% lower than in 2019.
