In 2023, the number of overseas resident visits to the United Kingdom totaled 38 million, representing a growth of over 20 percent from the previous year. The figure was projected to reach 38.7 million in 2024. Has the UK’s tourism industry completely recovered from the coronavirus pandemic? Like in most countries, the travel restrictions put in place to stem the spread of the coronavirus wreaked havoc on the UK’s tourism industry. Overseas visitor numbers dropped to 7.1 million in 2021, representing a drop of over 80 percent from 2019. While the figure reported for 2023 showed a continued recovery in terms of overseas visitors to the UK, it remained below pre-pandemic levels. However, in terms of spending among the UK’s leading inbound travel markets, most overseas visitors spent more in 2023 than in 2019, with visitors from the UK’s leading inbound travel market, the United States, spending around 50 percent more during their travels than in 2019. What are the most visited cities in the UK? Unsurprisingly, London consistently ranked as the most visited town or city in the UK among international tourists in recent years, drawing in 20.27 million visitors in 2023. This was around tenfold the number of the second-most visited city, Edinburgh, which received 2.32 million visitors during the same year. As the UK’s capital city, London’s tourist attractions are as varied as the city itself; however, one particularly strong draw for inbound visitors is Royal Family-related tourism. This is evident with the top two most visited paid tourist attractions in England being based in London and either belonging to the Royal Family or being run by a Royal-affiliated charity. Meanwhile, among UK residents, London ranks as the second most popular destination for a summer staycation, with the South West ranking first.

Monthly estimates of overseas residents’ visits and spending and visits and spending abroad by UK or Great Britain residents. Also includes data on purpose of visit, area visited by UK residents and area of residence for overseas residents.

In 2023, the United States was the leading inbound travel market for the United Kingdom based on the number of visits. That year, the UK reported approximately 5.12 million inbound trips from the U.S., surpassing the figures recorded in 2019 and 2022. In total, the number of inbound visits in the UK reach nearly 40 million in 2023.

United Kingdom UK: International Tourism: Number of Arrivals data was reported at 35,814,000.000 Person in 2016. This records an increase from the previous number of 34,436,000.000 Person for 2015. United Kingdom UK: International Tourism: Number of Arrivals data is updated yearly, averaging 28,119,000.000 Person from Dec 1995 (Median) to 2016, with 22 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 35,814,000.000 Person in 2016 and a record low of 20,982,000.000 Person in 2001. United Kingdom UK: International Tourism: Number of Arrivals data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by World Bank. The data is categorized under Global Database’s United Kingdom – Table UK.World Bank.WDI: Tourism Statistics. International inbound tourists (overnight visitors) are the number of tourists who travel to a country other than that in which they have their usual residence, but outside their usual environment, for a period not exceeding 12 months and whose main purpose in visiting is other than an activity remunerated from within the country visited. When data on number of tourists are not available, the number of visitors, which includes tourists, same-day visitors, cruise passengers, and crew members, is shown instead. Sources and collection methods for arrivals differ across countries. In some cases data are from border statistics (police, immigration, and the like) and supplemented by border surveys. In other cases data are from tourism accommodation establishments. For some countries number of arrivals is limited to arrivals by air and for others to arrivals staying in hotels. Some countries include arrivals of nationals residing abroad while others do not. Caution should thus be used in comparing arrivals across countries. The data on inbound tourists refer to the number of arrivals, not to the number of people traveling. Thus a person who makes several trips to a country during a given period is counted each time as a new arrival.; ; World Tourism Organization, Yearbook of Tourism Statistics, Compendium of Tourism Statistics and data files.; Gap-filled total;

The number of visits by overseas residents to the United Kingdom gradually recovered in 2022, after falling sharply with the onset of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. As of September 2023, inbound tourist visits to the UK totaled roughly 3.1 million, which was an increase from September in the previous year and was only marginally less than pre-pandemic levels for the same month. Over the period considered, visits by overseas tourists to the United Kingdom peaked at 4.4 million in August 2019.

International tourism receipts are expenditures by international inbound visitors, including payments to national carriers for international transport. These receipts include any other prepayment made for goods or services received in the destination country. They also may include receipts from same-day visitors, except when these are important enough to justify separate classification. For some countries they do not include receipts for passenger transport items. Data are in current U.S. dollars.

In 2023, international tourism expenditure in the United Kingdom rose by 17 percent over the previous year, reaching 31.1 billion British pounds. This marked the first time since the onset of the coronavirus pandemic that inbound tourist spending exceeded pre-pandemic levels. Spending was forecast to continue to grow in 2024.

Travelers aged 25 to 34 accounted for the highest number of overseas visits to the United Kingdom in 2022, with roughly 7.1 million visits. This figure remained below the number of inbound visits reported in 2019, prior to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. Meanwhile, the UK recorded around 6.7 million overseas visits by travelers aged 35 to 44 in 2022.

Visit Britain publish data relating to international visitors to the UK. They produce the data in two formats - individual spreadsheets for each region that are updated annually, and a single spreadsheet for all regions, containing less detail but updated quarterly.

London data

London data shows totals for nights, visits, and spend. Data broken down by age, purpose, duration, mode and country. This spreadsheet is also available from Visit Britain website.

All Regions data

The latest quarterly data for regions (47MB), shows quarterly data including purpose and country. This spreadsheet is also available from Visit Britain website.

A combination of these two spreadsheets is used to create data used for the Dashboard here.

All data taken from the International Passenger Survey (IPS).

International tourism accounts for nearly four-fifths of all tourist spending in London. Some additional data on domestic tourism can be found on the Visit Britain website, and Visit England both overnight tourism and Day visits pages.

Data on accomodation occupancy levels is also available from Visit England.

An overview of all tourism data for London can be found in this GLAE report 'Tourism in London'

Further information can be found on the London and Partners website.

Comparisons of international tourist arrivals with other world cities are produced by Euromonitor and Mastercard.

United Kingdom UK: International Tourism: Receipts: for Passenger Transport Items data was reported at 14.100 USD bn in 2016. This records a decrease from the previous number of 15.212 USD bn for 2015. United Kingdom UK: International Tourism: Receipts: for Passenger Transport Items data is updated yearly, averaging 8.409 USD bn from Dec 1995 (Median) to 2016, with 22 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 15.212 USD bn in 2015 and a record low of 6.200 USD bn in 2009. United Kingdom UK: International Tourism: Receipts: for Passenger Transport Items data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by World Bank. The data is categorized under Global Database’s United Kingdom – Table UK.World Bank.WDI: Tourism Statistics. International tourism receipts for passenger transport items are expenditures by international inbound visitors for all services provided in the international transportation by resident carriers. Also included are passenger services performed within an economy by nonresident carriers. Excluded are passenger services provided to nonresidents by resident carriers within the resident economies; these are included in travel items. In addition to the services covered by passenger fares--including fares that are a part of package tours but excluding cruise fares, which are included in travel--passenger services include such items as charges for excess baggage, vehicles, or other personal accompanying effects and expenditures for food, drink, or other items for which passengers make expenditures while on board carriers. Data are in current U.S. dollars.; ; World Tourism Organization, Yearbook of Tourism Statistics, Compendium of Tourism Statistics and data files.; Gap-filled total;

This statistic shows the total number of inbound visits to England from 2009 to 2019. International visitor numbers have slowly increased since 2009, reaching over 36 million visits by 2017. There was a slight decline in 2018, but in 2019 the figures reached 36.11 million visitors.

United Kingdom UK: International Tourism: Receipts: % of Total Exports data was reported at 7.417 % in 2016. This records a decrease from the previous number of 7.695 % for 2015. United Kingdom UK: International Tourism: Receipts: % of Total Exports data is updated yearly, averaging 6.712 % from Dec 1995 (Median) to 2016, with 22 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 8.561 % in 1995 and a record low of 5.894 % in 2011. United Kingdom UK: International Tourism: Receipts: % of Total Exports data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by World Bank. The data is categorized under Global Database’s United Kingdom – Table UK.World Bank.WDI: Tourism Statistics. International tourism receipts are expenditures by international inbound visitors, including payments to national carriers for international transport. These receipts include any other prepayment made for goods or services received in the destination country. They also may include receipts from same-day visitors, except when these are important enough to justify separate classification. For some countries they do not include receipts for passenger transport items. Their share in exports is calculated as a ratio to exports of goods and services, which comprise all transactions between residents of a country and the rest of the world involving a change of ownership from residents to nonresidents of general merchandise, goods sent for processing and repairs, nonmonetary gold, and services.; ; World Tourism Organization, Yearbook of Tourism Statistics, Compendium of Tourism Statistics and data files, and IMF and World Bank exports estimates.; Weighted average;

The number of inbound visits to the United Kingdom declined sharply in 2020 and 2021 over the previous years due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. In the fourth quarter of 2021, visits by international tourists in the UK totaled 3.6 million, rising substantially over the previous quarter but remaining way below pre-pandemic levels. Overall, data for 2021 mainly refer to air passengers since it was not possible to conduct passenger surveys at the Eurotunnel and UK ports. Figures from the port of Dover were included only from the third quarter of the year.

Seasonally and non-seasonally adjusted estimates of completed international visits. Based on International Passenger Survey data.

With the help of VisitBritain’s (tourist board of Great Britain) tourism promotional efforts, the UK’s tourism sector depicted growth during 2010–2015, when domestic and inbound tourist volumes rose at a CAGR of 1.99% and 3.81% respectively. The growth in outbound tourism was supported by the improved economic growth in the same period. Read More

Following the sharp drop in inbound visits to the United Kingdom during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, the volume of overseas visits was close to returning to pre-pandemic levels in 2023. That year, there were nearly 38 million overseas resident visits to the UK, while the figure for 2019 had been 40.86 million visits. In both years, the most common reason for making a trip to the UK had been for holidays.

Inbound, outbound and domestic tourism expenditure, inbound tourism consumption, production accounts and employment of the tourism industries and domestic supply and internal tourism consumption.

London Borough level tourism trip estimates (thousands).

The ‘top-down’ nature of the Local Area Tourism Impact (LATI) model (starting with London data) means it is best suited to disaggregate expenditure. However, tourism trips were also disaggregated for comparative purposes using the estimated proportions of spending by overseas, domestic and day visitors in the boroughs. Since the trip estimates are derived from data on trips to London they do not account for trips to different boroughs by visitors whilst in London.

Indicative borough level day visitor/tourist estimates for 2007 were derived from the LDA’s own experimental London level day visitor estimates. As such the borough level day visitor estimates should be treated with caution and the 2007 day visitor estimates are not comparable with those from previous years. They are intended only to give a best estimate of the scale of day visitor tourism in each borough from the currently available data.

Further tourism data for UK regions covering trends in visits, nights, and spend to London by visitors from overseas is available on the Visit Britain website. Analyse data by age, purpose, duration, and quarter.

In 2023, the main purpose for domestic overnight trips in Great Britain was for visiting friends and relatives, accounting for 43.1 million trips. Meanwhile, domestic overnight holiday trips totaled 37.2 million. Overall, the number of domestic overnight trips in Great Britain totaled over 115 million in 2023.

Provisional annual inbound, outbound and domestic expenditure on tourism, internal tourism consumption and employment for the tourism industries.