THIS year's Giants spectacular brought £2.2 million to Wirral's economy, it has been revealed.

A report, produced by Liverpool City Region Local Enterprise Partnership, found that the finale of the Giants trilogy, Liverpool's Dream, that took place across Liverpool and Wirral from 4 to 7 October, brought a total of 1.3 million visitors to the area.

This makes the Giants spectacular the biggest cultural event in the area - smashing visitor records for 2015's Three Queens event.

An independent report into Liverpool's Dream found that around 90% of people said that the Giants event was their sole reason for visiting the area and that catering sales at the Floral Pavilion were up by 73% while welcoming 350 visitors on Friday's event.

Tony Jones, chairman of New Brighton Coastal Community Team said: "Having the Giants return to the city in October was undoubtedly one of the key ‘moments’ in what has been a fantastic year for Liverpool, as we celebrated 10 years since Capital of Culture, and our own highlight in the 2018 calendar with the Terracotta Warriors visiting World Museum.

“The amazing photographs that appeared in the media have demonstrated the sheer numbers of people who descended on the city to share in the Giants’ final visit, and the Waterfront played a huge part in their story.

"As a result, we received more than 54,000 visitors to our waterfront venues over the Giants’ weekend – a rise of 108% compared to the same weekend last year.

"It’s fantastic that people chose to incorporate a visit to our museums into their weekend with the Giants, and we hope they’ll return to enjoy what our venues have to offer all year round.”

The report also found that 75% of visitors were from the Liverpool City Region and the North West while 22% travelled from elsewhere in the UK and 3% were from overseas.

Metro Mayor Steve Rotheram said: “This third and final visit of the Giants has exceeded all expectations.

"It provided a huge boost for the local economy and the inclusion of Wirral this time round has helped to showcase what the wider city region has to offer as a visitor destination.

"That’s why we were proud to invest £5 million into the 2018 cultural programme.”