Liverpool’s £1.2bn ($2.2bn) a year tourist industry is one of the city’s most visible growth industries. While this year’s European Capital of Culture celebrations have focused international attention on the wealth of tourist attractions in Liverpool’s city centre, Merseyside has a much wider range of tourist facilities than most European cities of its size.

It has the biggest density of art galleries and museums outside London and boasts Royal Birkdale and Royal Hoylake, two of the UK’s top Open championships golf courses, Aintree, home of the Grand National horse race, as well as a range of other iconic attractions such as the Gormley statues on Crosby sands. Southport, 16 miles north of Liverpool city centre, has been reinventing itself as one of the UK’s top seaside resorts.