Olympics Means Ilford Is The Fastest Growing Tourist Hotspot

The Fastest Growing UK Tourist Hotspot? Really?

The 2012 Olympics have helped lift a London suburb not normally associated with tourism into Europe's fastest-growing destination, it has been revealed.

Ilford in east London - a location close to the main Olympic site at Stratford - has seen the biggest increase in traveller interest for this year, according to the TripAdvisor company.

Other UK locations hitherto unheralded as tourist spots also made the top 10, including Brandon in Suffolk, Hounslow in west London and Warrington in Cheshire.

Two Greater Manchester destinations - Trafford and Salford - also make the top 10, as does Tamworth in Staffordshire and Warminster in Wiltshire.

The only non-UK destinations in the fastest-growing list were Valras-Plage in France and Yalta in Ukraine.

TripAdvisor spokesperson Emma Shaw said: "These destinations may not all be the most obvious tourist hotspots, but for one reason or another they've sparked rapidly rising traveller attention this year.

"For the British destinations, and especially Ilford, it's encouraging news - and it's likely we can attribute much of this spike in traffic to increased interest generally in the UK as excitement builds around next year's Olympics."

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