FEATURES OF INBOUND FOOTBALL TOURISM IN THE UNITED KINGDOM

Abstract

Watching live football matches and football-related events, such as stadium tours, visits to football museums, and specialized events, are popular activities among international visitors to the United Kingdom. Of all the sports activities the United Kingdom offers, the opportunity to attend a live football match attracts the largest number of foreign tourists. The article aims to identify the peculiarities of the development of inbound football tourism in the United Kingdom. To conduct an objective and thorough study, the following methods were used: analysis and synthesis (when determining the sequence of the survey); deduction and induction (when choosing a research strategy); systematization (when formulating the study's conclusions); structural and logical generalization (when building a logical model of the research process). The article substantiates the importance of football for developing inbound tourism in the United Kingdom. The article analyses the indicators of inbound football tourism based on the results of a survey conducted by the Office for National Statistics of the United Kingdom. The analysis of the indicators of inbound football tourism development allows us to state the growing importance of football in stimulating tourism to the United Kingdom. The largest number of football attendances in the United Kingdom are generated by markets such as the Republic of Ireland, Germany, and the United States of America. The largest inbound markets for football expenditure with visits that include live football matches are Qatar, the United States, and China. The regional peculiarities of inbound football tourism in the United Kingdom are investigated. It was found that foreign visitors to Northwest England most often watched a football match live. It is determined that football contributes to the development of inbound tourism in the United Kingdom outside the peak tourist season. The role and significance of football tourism development for both the local economy and the United Kingdom tourism industry are revealed.