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Festivals attract a million more tourists
By Rob Singh, Evening Standard 13.10.06
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Tourism in London has staged a remarkable recovery since the terror bombings in July last year.
There were more than three million visits to the capital last month for its festivals and special events - up from more than two million in September last year, according to figures published today.
Scores of concerts, events and an array of free festivals have helped numbers rise dramatically.
Over the last month, London has seen everything from theatre, dance, music and art events to giant paellas, human towers and The Great Gorilla Run.
The breadth of events and the fact that many were free ensured exceptional attendance at all of them.
James Bidwell, chief executive of Visit London, said: "Tourism is booming. London has just experienced one of its busiest Septembers ever.
"Many of the festival season events had record-breaking numbers of visitors, which gave the capital a real boost."
While the festivals enjoyed outstanding success, the capital hosted numerous theatrical performances, including God Save The Teen.
This flash-mob style theatre event took over Trafalgar Square with more than 1,000 actors aged between 12 and 23 celebrating 50 years of the teenager.
More than 16,000 people watched the performance over eight hours.
The London leg of the Tour of Britain had around 100,000 spectators.
Numbers for the Regent Street festival were 200,000 up on last year with more than half a million joining in the spectacularly themed A Walk Through Spain.
The Mayor's Thames Festival attracted nearly 600,000.
London also played host to some top live music performances last month, including Lionel Richie and Angela Gheorghiu at Proms in the Park, Asian Dub Foundation at Brick Lane Festival, klezmer bands, cantors and choirs at Simcha on the Square and Scissor Sisters painting the town red with their Trafalgar Square gig. The band is set to do the same again for a Halloween concert in Brixton.
In August, the Notting Hill Carnival saw numbers hit close to a million.
This month continues to provide a draw with the start of the British Film Festival.
The statistics are based on attendance numbers at the festivals and people may have gone to more than one festival.
They will come as welcome news for the tourism industry after the 7 July attacks and the 21 July alerts which saw the numbers of tourists and people coming to London drop dramatically.
As a result, Visit London - the official visitor monitoring organisation for the capital - undertook a major campaign.
Mayor Ken Livingstone said: "London's festival season has helped make September one of the most exciting months to spend time in the capital."
The events that pulled them in
Notting Hill Carnival: 1,000,000 visitors
Tour of Britain (London leg): 100,000
Mela, South Asian music festival: 100,000
A Walk Through Spain as part of Regent Street Festival: 500,000
The Greenwich riverfront jazz festival: 7,000
Brick Lane Festival: 60,000
The Mayor's Thames Festival: 665,000
Scissor Sisters free concert in Trafalgar Square: 15,000
London Design Festival: 300,000 Open House Old Royal Naval College: 13,500
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