File photo shows Chinese tourists has been increasing significantly in UK in recent years. [Photo: Xinhua]

The United Kingdom has been working hard to attract more Chinese visitors.

Statistics from VisitBritain, the national tourism agency, shows that the country saw about a 20-percent increase in visitors from China at the beginning of the year.

The agency's director Patricia Yates says they're all competing for Chinese visitor because they see growth potential from the biggest outbound market in the world.

"For every 22 Chinese visitors that come here, another job is created in tourism. So high-spending Chinese visitors, we absolutely want them to grow. In all, the market is worth about half a billion pounds to Britain at the moment, we want to double that in the next four years. So that's a really ambitious growth target to come."

In the meantime, Yates also mentions some disadvantages in UK tourism compared with some other countries.

"One of the things that we don't have, Britain is typically a very well-connected country, we're an island, we have to be, the route development isn't as good as China as we would like it to be. So I think getting more routes approved, getting those into regional airports, absolutely a focus for us in the next few years."

Data from VisitBritain shows that the number of Chinese tourists to the UK grew to 185 thousand last year, with per capita consumption in the country standing at nearly 2700 pounds, or over 4100 U.S. dollars.