As tourist bodies start to gear up for the influx of visitors for the London Olympics in 2012, it is focusing minds on which countries the visitors will come from. This is partly because the make-up of overseas visitors is changing, something many museums that cater for large numbers of tourists are aware of.
VisitBritain, the government-funded body that promotes the UK overseas, has identified some strong trends for where overseas visitors will come from over the next few years.
Its research shows that visits from North America, although still very large compared with other countries, have not fully recovered since the impact of foot and mouth in the UK and the 9/11 attacks, while numbers from western Europe are growing slowly. Not surprisingly, the fastest growth is expected from those countries with rapidly expanding economies.
'The strongest performance in 2006 is expected to come from Asia and from emerging markets in eastern Europe,' says Elliott Frisby
a spokesman for VisitBritain. 'The increasing number of direct, low-cost services from eastern Europe to many regional airports across the UK is already resulting in rapid growth, although largely in shorter-stay visits.'
Many of the UK's museums work with tourism bodies to promote themselves overseas, but Charles Saumarez Smith, the director of the National Gallery in London, says the importance of single exhibitions to a visitor's decision to come to the UK, particularly for city-break visitors from Europe, is sometimes underestimated.
His belief is partly based on detailed research the gallery carried out on the economic impact of its 2004/05 exhibition, Raphael: From Urbino to Rome.
Visitors to the exhibition from overseas made up 17 per cent, and of those, 22 per cent said the exhibition was their main reason for coming to London. These visits to specific shows might become even more significant, particularly with the expected rise in numbers of eastern European visitors.
Saumarez Smith is also looking further afield, to the growth in visitors from China. The gallery's restaurant menu was recently made available in Chinese, although it is still early days for this market. 'The issue facing us at the moment is that the percentage of Chinese visitors is very small, but it is expected to grow rapidly by 2015,' Saumarez Smith says.
Other museums in London are also waiting for the growth in new markets to have a real impact. Overseas tourists make up about 30 per cent of the visitors to the Natural History Museum, with 17 per cent coming from Europe (mainly France, Germany, Spain and Italy), 7 per cent from the US and 6 per cent from the rest of the world.
'There has been a slight shift in our overseas patterns with slightly more people coming from Poland and central/eastern Europe and from China and Japan,' says Penny Hamilton, the head of marketing at the Natural History Museum. 'But the numbers at the moment are statistically quite small and therefore have not made too much of an impact on our overall bottom line.'
The Natural History Museum produces visitor maps in five other languages in addition to English (French, Italian, Spanish, German and Japanese) and Hamilton says it constantly monitors this to see if there are significant requests for other languages.
It is not only museums in the obvious tourist hotspots such as London and Edinburgh that are taking into account the changing make-up of overseas visitors. Many people come to the UK to visit friends and relatives and spread out across the UK.
This is particularly true of India, which is seen by VisitBritain as an important future market, because by 2050 it will be the world's third largest economy behind China and the US.
There were 255,000 Indian visitors to the UK in 2004, which already rivals countries such as South Africa, New Zealand and South Korea. Many of them head to places such as Leicester, where about 26 per cent of the population is of Indian origin, according to the 2001 Census.
While Leicester City Museums does not target overseas visitors, it is aware that its work with Leicester's Indian community will often be seen by people visiting family and relatives.
'As one of the city's largest communities has ethnic roots in India, we have had significant success in the past with exhibitions such as Meeting God and Cinema India,' says Sheherbano Syed, the marketing brand officer for arts and museums at Leicester City Council.
'Although we don't directly aim to bring in Indian visitors, we do try to meet the needs and interests of Leicester's communities, and in doing so may attract visiting friends and relatives or tourists from India,' Syed says. 'With Indian visitors, our work is made a lot easier by the strong friends and relatives market, especially during events such as Diwali.'
The Tate is very much an international organisation, and between 30 to 40 per cent of its visitors come from overseas, depending on the time of year. Like others, it is looking to new technology to help it serve visitors better.
'The Tate Modern has an international programme and is bound to touch nearly all countries,' says Will Gompertz, the Tate's director of communications. 'So on the language side, the internet will provide the tools we need to cater for everyone's needs.'
By the 2012 Olympics some of the indications already apparent in the make-up of visitors to the UK will have become important trends. Wherever tomorrow's tourists come from, it seems certain that UK museums will be seen by an increasingly diverse audience.
VisitBritain, the government-funded body that promotes the UK overseas, has identified some strong trends for where overseas visitors will come from over the next few years.
Its research shows that visits from North America, although still very large compared with other countries, have not fully recovered since the impact of foot and mouth in the UK and the 9/11 attacks, while numbers from western Europe are growing slowly. Not surprisingly, the fastest growth is expected from those countries with rapidly expanding economies.
'The strongest performance in 2006 is expected to come from Asia and from emerging markets in eastern Europe,' says Elliott Frisby
a spokesman for VisitBritain. 'The increasing number of direct, low-cost services from eastern Europe to many regional airports across the UK is already resulting in rapid growth, although largely in shorter-stay visits.'
Many of the UK's museums work with tourism bodies to promote themselves overseas, but Charles Saumarez Smith, the director of the National Gallery in London, says the importance of single exhibitions to a visitor's decision to come to the UK, particularly for city-break visitors from Europe, is sometimes underestimated.
His belief is partly based on detailed research the gallery carried out on the economic impact of its 2004/05 exhibition, Raphael: From Urbino to Rome.
Visitors to the exhibition from overseas made up 17 per cent, and of those, 22 per cent said the exhibition was their main reason for coming to London. These visits to specific shows might become even more significant, particularly with the expected rise in numbers of eastern European visitors.
Saumarez Smith is also looking further afield, to the growth in visitors from China. The gallery's restaurant menu was recently made available in Chinese, although it is still early days for this market. 'The issue facing us at the moment is that the percentage of Chinese visitors is very small, but it is expected to grow rapidly by 2015,' Saumarez Smith says.
Other museums in London are also waiting for the growth in new markets to have a real impact. Overseas tourists make up about 30 per cent of the visitors to the Natural History Museum, with 17 per cent coming from Europe (mainly France, Germany, Spain and Italy), 7 per cent from the US and 6 per cent from the rest of the world.
'There has been a slight shift in our overseas patterns with slightly more people coming from Poland and central/eastern Europe and from China and Japan,' says Penny Hamilton, the head of marketing at the Natural History Museum. 'But the numbers at the moment are statistically quite small and therefore have not made too much of an impact on our overall bottom line.'
The Natural History Museum produces visitor maps in five other languages in addition to English (French, Italian, Spanish, German and Japanese) and Hamilton says it constantly monitors this to see if there are significant requests for other languages.
It is not only museums in the obvious tourist hotspots such as London and Edinburgh that are taking into account the changing make-up of overseas visitors. Many people come to the UK to visit friends and relatives and spread out across the UK.
This is particularly true of India, which is seen by VisitBritain as an important future market, because by 2050 it will be the world's third largest economy behind China and the US.
There were 255,000 Indian visitors to the UK in 2004, which already rivals countries such as South Africa, New Zealand and South Korea. Many of them head to places such as Leicester, where about 26 per cent of the population is of Indian origin, according to the 2001 Census.
While Leicester City Museums does not target overseas visitors, it is aware that its work with Leicester's Indian community will often be seen by people visiting family and relatives.
'As one of the city's largest communities has ethnic roots in India, we have had significant success in the past with exhibitions such as Meeting God and Cinema India,' says Sheherbano Syed, the marketing brand officer for arts and museums at Leicester City Council.
'Although we don't directly aim to bring in Indian visitors, we do try to meet the needs and interests of Leicester's communities, and in doing so may attract visiting friends and relatives or tourists from India,' Syed says. 'With Indian visitors, our work is made a lot easier by the strong friends and relatives market, especially during events such as Diwali.'
The Tate is very much an international organisation, and between 30 to 40 per cent of its visitors come from overseas, depending on the time of year. Like others, it is looking to new technology to help it serve visitors better.
'The Tate Modern has an international programme and is bound to touch nearly all countries,' says Will Gompertz, the Tate's director of communications. 'So on the language side, the internet will provide the tools we need to cater for everyone's needs.'
By the 2012 Olympics some of the indications already apparent in the make-up of visitors to the UK will have become important trends. Wherever tomorrow's tourists come from, it seems certain that UK museums will be seen by an increasingly diverse audience.
