Record numbers holidayed in Oxfordshire last year despite foreign travel reopening with Oxford, Burford, Chipping Norton, and Witney proving to be the county’s most popular travel spots.
Bookings to holiday lets throughout Oxfordshire were up 52 per cent last year compared with 2019, according to new data from Sykes Holiday Cottages.
The holiday let rental agency analysed booking figures for its 20,000 properties across the UK and found bookings to the South East increased by 38 per cent last year versus pre-pandemic and were up 2 per cent in 2021 compared to 2019.
Further analysis, conducted by Oxford Economics on behalf of the agency and The Short Term Accommodation Association (STAA), has also revealed the estimated economic impact of short-term holiday lets across the UK over the last few years.
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The amount of money spent by those visiting short-term holiday lets in the South East reached a record £2 billion in 2021, with tourists typically spending a total of nearly 12.8 million nights in short-term accommodation across the region each year.
As a result, the short-stay tourism industry injected £2.2billion into the South East’s economies in 2021 alone, including via spending with local companies, job creation and tax revenues.
This economic impact represented 0.7 per cent of the area’s entire Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in 2021.
More than 33,000 people throughout the South East are now employed in jobs linked to the short-term let industry – whether directly as hosts or in restaurants or tourist attractions.
In total, the short-term let industry contributed £27.7billion to UK GDP in 2021.
Graham Donoghue, chief executive of Sykes Holiday Cottages, said: “With the popularity of staycations not expected to subside anytime soon, there’s every reason to believe that the positive economic impact of short-term lets within Oxfordshire will remain equally strong in the years to come.
“Our recent report with Oxford Economics is the most in-depth study that’s ever been conducted on the impact of the sector and really demonstrates the importance of short-term lets to regional economies across the country – with record bookings in 2022 likely to have made this even more so the case last year.
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“The industry supports local jobs and pours in millions of pounds of guest spend annually, with visitors opting to eat at local independent pubs and restaurants, explore little-known tourist attractions, and spend their money on holiday souvenirs.
“We’ve made it our mission to ensure the sustainable growth of the sector. This includes working closely with stakeholders, including holiday-homeowners, to ensure properties are let in a responsible way that benefits local communities, instead of second homes laying empty.”
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