Cestovní ruch Velké Británie

The Master’s thesis deals with tourism of the United Kingdom. The main goal is to assess impacts and importance of tourism for economy of the United Kingdom. The component goals of the thesis are to present United Kingdom as a touristic destination, to analyse current state of tourism in the country and to review United Kingdom’s competitiveness on the international tourism market. The practical part of the thesis is mainly based on secondary statistical data analysis which are used to evaluate domestic, inbound, and outbound tourism of the country and its economic impacts. Domestic tourism is a mainstay of United Kingdom’s tourism accounting for 80 % of total tourism revenue. Inbound tourism in the United Kingdom has seen increasing numbers of tourists and in the past few years record numbers of inbound visitors and their spend were recorded. Outbound tourism has been also rapidly growing. The number of trips abroad taken by UK residents has been increasing for years which makes United Kingdom important source market. According to Travel and Tourism Competitiveness Index, United Kingdom was ranked 6th out of 140 countries. The country’s biggest strengths are efficient utilization of ICT and high quality of tourism infrastructure. The thesis proved tourism is very important sector of British economy. With its direct and indirect impacts, tourism contributes 9–10 % to UK GDP and accounts for 9–12 % of total employment. In terms of balance of payments, outbound tourism has prevailed for years, and therefore United Kingdom’s tourism balance is negative.