England’s collection of historic buildings, monuments and sites have a lot of pulling power, both for the citizens of the UK itself and for foreigners.
The history of the UK and what it has left behind is a major motivator for visiting particular areas. And the more attractive the buildings and sites can be made, the more people will visit them.
Quite how much the pulling power of heritage is worth used to be a matter of conjecture. But Ortus Economic Research has put a value on it for Historic England. And the value is just over £22billion.
That includes: £11.9billion from heritage itself; £16.4billion additional spend by visitors to the sites; £9.6billion that goes to the construction sector for the repair & maintenance of buildings.
There are also 278,000 people employed by the heritage sector.
This collection of statistical data and its analysis has been published in a new report from Historic England called Heritage and the Economy 2017.