The number of overseas tourist visits to London, United Kingdom continued to grow in 2023, following a sharp drop in 2021, due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. Despite the significant annual increase, inbound arrivals in the UK's capital remained below pre-pandemic levels, reaching 20.28 million in 2023. That year, inbound tourist visits to the UK totaled nearly 40 million. London leading the way in Europe London’s contribution to inbound tourism in the United Kingdom is significant, with the UK’s capital accounting for over 50 percent of international tourist arrivals in the country in 2023. This was more than other leading European destinations, such as Amsterdam, Paris, and Berlin. Those visiting the UK capital also made a significant contribution to the local economy, with expenditure of international visitors in London peaking in 2023, with inbound tourists spending over 16 billion British pounds that year. However, this was not reflected in business travel spending in the city, which was nearly half a billion British pounds in 2023 than in 2019. London’s visitor attractions As the largest city in the UK, London is home to some of the country's most iconic visitor attractions. These range from government-sponsored museums, such as the British Museum, to the Tower of London and the ZSL London Zoo. In 2023, the British Museum was the most visited tourist attraction in London. Overall, most sites have struggled to match the visitation rates recorded before the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, however. For instance, attendance at the British Museum – the most visited free attraction in London in 2023 – declined by around seven percent from 2019.

The Tower of London was the most popular paid attraction in London in 2023, welcoming roughly 2.8 million visitors. Attendance at the renowned site grew significantly compared to the previous year, nearly catching up with the figure from 2019. Meanwhile, the Royal Botanical Gardens (Kew Gardens) was the second most visited paid attraction in 2023, with just under two million visitors. What is the most popular free tourist attraction in London? In 2023, the British Museum topped the ranking of the most visited free attractions in London, welcoming nearly six million visitors. While attendance at the British Museum did not fully recover from the impact of COVID-19, the number of visitors to the Natural History Museum in South Kensington, which came in second in 2023, exceeded pre-pandemic levels. Overall, nine of the ten most visited tourist attractions in London that year did not charge for admission tickets. How many tourists visit London every year? London plays a key role in supporting the travel and tourism sector in the United Kingdom. Both before and after the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, it was by far the city with the highest inbound tourism spending in the UK. In 2023, the number of international tourist visits to London surpassed 20 million, nearly catching up with the overseas tourist visits recorded in 2019.

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.

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.

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.

The expenditure of international visitors in London, United Kingdom, rose in 2023 over the previous year, reaching 16.7 billion British pounds. Based on figures reaching back to 2009, this represented an all-time high. Despite this rise in inbound tourism spending, however, the number of overseas tourist visits to London in 2023 remained below the figures recorded between 2016 and 2019.

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.

GLA Economics is providing on an occasional basis medium-term forecasts of tourism visitor nights in London for domestic and international tourists. The forecasts are on a quarterly basis to 2026 and an annual basis to 2032. The estimates tri-angulate data from a number of sources. The methodology note provides more information on how this has been done.

In 2019, international travelers aged between 25 and 44 years old recorded the highest number of visits in London, United Kingdom (UK). Overall, tourists aged 25-34 and 35-44 accounted for 4.5 million and 4.4 million visits by overseas residents, respectively. In total, international tourist visits in London exceeded 21 million.

Local Authority level tourist spend estimates (£ millions).

Indicitive borough level day visitor 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.

Attendance at the Tate Modern in London increased by 22.1 percent in 2023 compared to the previous year. Overall, the gallery welcomed around 4.74 million visitors in 2023.

Annual estimates of visits and spending by UK residents abroad. Also includes data on nights, purpose, main country visited and mode of travel. Breakdowns by length of stay and nationality are covered. In 2019, new methods were introduced for this dataset. The 2009 to 2019 edition supersedes all previous time series editions of this dataset. We advise against using all editions listed before the 2019 edition.

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. This dataset is no longer updated.

Daytime population - The estimated number of people in a borough in the daytime during an average day, broken down by component sub-groups.

The figures given are an average day during school term-time. No account has been made for seasonal variations, or for people who are usually in London (resident, at school or working), but are away visiting another place.

Sources include the Business Register and Employment Survey (BRES) (available under license), Annual Population Survey (APS), 2011 Census, Department for Education (DfE), International Passenger Survey (IPS), GB Tourism Survey (GBTS), Great Britain Day Visit Survey (GBDVS), GLA Population Projections, and GLA Economics estimates (GLAE).

The figures published in these sources have been used exactly as they appear - no further adjustments have been made to account for possible sampling errors or questionnaire design flaws.

Day trip visitors are defined as those on day trips away from home for three hours or more and not undertaking activities that would regularly constitute part of their work or would be a regular leisure activity.

International visitors – people from a country other than the UK visiting the location;
Domestic overnight tourists – people from other parts of the UK staying in the location for at least one night.
All visitor data is modelled and unrounded.

This edition was released on 14 January 2015 and replaces the previous estimates for 2012.

GLA resident population, 2011 Census resident population, and 2011 Census workday populations (by sex) included for comparison.

For more workday population data by age use the **Custom Age-Range Tool for Census 2011 Workday population , or download data for a range of geographical levels from NOMIS. **

The British Museum was the most visited free tourist attraction in London in 2023, welcoming roughly 5.8 million visitors. While attendance at the renowned institution increased significantly over the previous year, the number of visitors remained below the figure reported before the COVID-19 pandemic. This was also the case with many other leading attractions, with only the National History Museum and the Royal Museums Greenwich having higher attendance in 2023 compared to 2019, among the listed attractions. Has tourism in London recovered from the impact of COVID-19? In 2023, the number of overseas visits to London exceeded 20 million. While inbound tourist visits experienced a sharp annual increase, they did not fully recovery yet from the impact of COVID-19. That said, expenditure by international visitors in the UK’s capital had more than recovered in 2023, reaching an all-time high that year. London’s contribution to inbound tourism in the UK Both before and after the pandemic, London was by far the most visited city in the UK by international tourists. When looking at the contribution to inbound tourism of leading European travel destinations, the city’s prominent role in supporting inbound tourism in the UK stands out. In 2023, London alone accounted for over half of inbound tourist arrivals in the country.

This dataset is about museums and is filtered where the city includes London, featuring 7 columns including city, city coordinates, country, latitude, and longitude. The preview is ordered by visitors (descending).

This dataset is about museums in London, featuring 4 columns: city, country, museum, and visitors. The preview is ordered by visitors (descending).

Total visits to the Tower of London in England rose significantly in 2023 over the previous year. Despite the sharp increase, the visitor volume remained slightly below the figure from 2019, the year before the impact of COVID-19, reaching just under 2.8 million in 2023. What are the most visited heritage sites in England? Both before and after the onset of the health crisis, the Tower of London topped the ranking of the most visited castles, forts, and monument sites in England. Other popular heritage sites in the country are the Abbey Gardens, Stonehenge, and the Windsor Castle. Overall, visitors to English Heritage sites exceeded five million in the 2022/2023 fiscal year. What are the most visited tourist attractions in London? London is home to some of the most well-known visitor attractions in the United Kingdom. In 2023, three museums ranked as the most visited tourist attractions in London: the British Museum, the Natural History Museum in South Kensington, and the Tate Modern. While attendance at these three institutions experienced a significant annual increase, only the Natural History Museum managed to surpass pre-pandemic levels.