Spending from Indian tourists across Britain jumped 32 per cent in 2013, a welcome consequence of India becoming the UK’s largest BRIC market in terms of volume of visitors.

There were a record 375,000 visits to Britain from India last year, up 11 per cent on 2012. Expenditure figures are growing at an even faster rate and only behind China in terms of total value. In 2013, nominal spend by Indian visitors hit a record £441 million.

With the Indian cricket team due to tour England later this summer, tourism bosses are holding an India market seminar at Lord’s cricket ground, to spotlight the key opportunities from this promising market. Taking place today (24 June), senior figures from across the Indian tourism industry will present their insights and discuss the market and its potential to boost business to Britain.

Work is already underway to strengthen tourism ties between the two countries. In January this year, UKinbound and the European Tour Operators Association (ETOA) signed MOUs with their respective counterparts in India to maintain a strong B2B relationship and generate more tourism business in the years to come. VisitBritain’s research suggests that the number of annual visits to Britain from India has the potential to reach half a million visits by 2020.

“China grabs the headlines but the Indian market is one of our most loyal and the largest in volume of all of the BRICs,” said acting CEO of VisitBritain Keith Beecham.

“Indian visitors have a higher propensity to travel beyond London, so they are a hugely valuable market in terms of spreading the regional benefits of international tourism across the country.

“We need to find ways of boosting visitor numbers further and this jointly hosted seminar will help the UK industry learn more about exactly what makes Indian visitors tick.”