Number of day trips soar as more explore UK

January to November 2016 also saw the highest number of day trips taken in the first eleven months of the year at 1.35 billion visits in England, according to the figures from Visit England.

The number of domestic day trips in England from January to November were up 14 per cent on the previous year with spend up seven per cent, both records for the first eleven months of the year.

VisitEngland Chief Executive Sally Balcombe said: “It is great to see more people getting out and exploring the huge range of quality destinations and tourism products on offer right across the country.

“There is nowhere like England when it comes to incredible experiences on your doorstep.”

Their top suggestion for a day trip this year is to Hull which is currently enjoying the limelight as City of Culture.

Others include the new Hadrian’s Cavalry exhibition – a wall-wide exhibition celebrating the elite Roman cavalry regiments that guarded Hadrian’s Wall - and the British Music Experience, which is moving from London to Liverpool, where it will open in the historic Cunard Building on the Pier Head in February.

Sir Gary Verity, Chief Executive of Welcome to Yorkshire, said: “Hull City of Culture got off to a spectacular start at the beginning of the year and has created a real buzz in the city.

“With hundreds of fantastic acts, installations and performances planned for the rest of the year I’d encourage everyone to head to Hull to discover what a fantastic city it is for themselves.”

Visit Hull and East Yorkshire (VHEY) is expecting the number of day visits to rocket to 6m in Hull in 2017 - a nearly 30 per cent rise over 2015, when it had 4.7m day visits.

With a plethora of events - an average of more than eight per day are planned through the year - a newly upgraded city centre and a warm welcome from volunteers, the tourism organisation is hoping visitors make a number of return trips.

More than 1,500 people from the leisure and service sector have been trained to point visitors in the direction of pubs, restaurants and the city’s quirky hidden treasures.

Tourism manager for VHEY Anthony Yates said visitors were already coming to the city from all over the country, Europe and internationally for City of Culture.

He said: “The idea is to make it a destination of choice as a leisure break while 2017 is taking place but also into 2018, 2019 and 2020.

“Anyone visiting the city throughout the year will find something of interest to see or do.”

Around 60,000 people poured into Hull to see the opening night of City of Culture 2017, with tens of thousands more experiencing the spectacular fireworks display from vantage points across the North and South bank of the Humber.

Large numbers of people have continued to visit throughout this week to see Made in Hull, whose centrepiece is a spectacular 15-minute film sequence in Queen Victoria Square.

It finishes on Saturday night.

VisitEngland also suggests trips to London to the World Athletics Championships and World Para Athletics Championships and the ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup final at Lord’s.