England’s Missed Opportunity Marketing Football Tourism to American Fans
Photo Caption: Liverpool Football Club plays in Anfield Stadium just minutes from the city center.
Skift Take
With NBCSports' investment in broadcast rights for the Premier League, and Fox Sports' rights investment for the German Bundesliga, the growth of football fandom in the U.S. will only grow and create additional opportunities for tourism.
A new report released by VisitBritain shows that more than one out of ten international visitors watched a live European football (soccer) match while visiting Northwest England.
The “Football Tourism Scores for Britain” report is based on the country's 2014 International Passenger Survey, which included a question asking if visitors attended a game.
The results show that slightly more than 800,000 inbound visitors across all of Britain saw a European Premier League football match, with the highest percentage (10.6%) among those who visited Manchester and Liverpool in Northwest England.
The next most popular region was Northeast England, where about 5.6% of international visitors attended a game.
