Visitor Oyster Card Expands Service to Gatwick Airport

From January 2016, travellers on the Gatwick Express, Southern Railway or Thameslink train services between London and Gatwick Airport will be able to use their Visitor Oyster card as payment.

As well as saving time, Visitor Oyster card holders can also save money. A single journey paper peak-time ticket currently costs £15.40 from London Terminals to Gatwick Airport (excluding Gatwick Express), whereas with pay as you go a trip in the ‘peak' travel time from Gatwick to London will cost £14.00 and £8.00 ‘off-peak'.

The cards can be used on London buses, trains, trams and the Underground, and provide exclusive discounts and money-saving deals on leading restaurants, shopping and entertainment venues simply by showing the card. 

"Visitor Oyster cards are the ‘must have' pass for travelling on London's extensive transport network which not only offers easy access to all of the city's wonderful attractions but also puts the rest of Britain within easy reach," said Kevin Jones, Head of Trade at VisitBritain. "We know that having easy-to-use public transport influences the perceptions tourists have of how welcoming Britain is so we are thrilled that, come the New Year, even more international visitors will be able to start reaping the benefits of pay as you go travel from the moment they step off the plane."

VisitBritain partnered with Transport for London in 2013 for the global promotion and distribution of the Visitor Oyster card on a ‘buy before you fly' basis encouraging visitors to London to pre-purchase their travel tickets before they leave home.

About 70,000 cards on average are sold globally every month and demand is increasing. From April to October this year more than 558,000 cards were sold compared to 357,000 during the same period last year, an increase of more than 50%.

The number of international visitor arrivals to Britain reached 34.4 million in 2014 - a record year. International visitor arrivals to Britain for the first nine months of 2015 have also broken records, according to latest figures from the Office for National Statistics, with 27.1 million visits from January to September this year, a 3% increase compared to the same period in 2014.

Tourism is Britain's seventh largest export industry and third largest service sector. Inbound tourism was worth more than £26 billion to the UK economy in 2013.