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 ***** million in 2023. That year, inbound tourist visits to the UK totaled nearly ** 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 ** 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 ** 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 ************** 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 ***** 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.

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.

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.

There were around *** million visits to London from the United States in 2023, which made it the leading international travel market for the United Kingdom's capital. In second place was France, with approximately *** million visits.

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.

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.

Introduction

The GiGL Spaces to Visit dataset provides locations and boundaries for open space sites in Greater London that are available to the public as destinations for leisure, activities and community engagement. It includes green corridors that provide opportunities for walking and cycling.

The dataset has been created by Greenspace Information for Greater London CIC (GiGL). As London’s Environmental Records Centre, GiGL mobilises, curates and shares data that underpin our knowledge of London’s natural environment. We provide impartial evidence to support informed discussion and decision making in policy and practice.

GiGL maps under licence from the Greater London Authority.

Description

This dataset is a sub-set of the GiGL Open Space dataset, the most comprehensive dataset available of open spaces in London. Sites are selected for inclusion in Spaces to Visit based on their public accessibility and likelihood that people would be interested in visiting.

The dataset is a mapped Geographic Information System (GIS) polygon dataset where one polygon (or multi-polygon) represents one space. As well as site boundaries, the dataset includes information about a site’s name, size and type (e.g. park, playing field etc.).

GiGL developed the Spaces to Visit dataset to support anyone who is interested in London’s open spaces - including community groups, web and app developers, policy makers and researchers - with an open licence data source. More detailed and extensive data are available under GiGL data use licences for GIGL partners, researchers and students. Information services are also available for ecological consultants, biological recorders and community volunteers – please see www.gigl.org.uk for more information.

Please note that access and opening times are subject to change (particularly at the current time) so if you are planning to visit a site check on the local authority or site website that it is open.

The dataset is updated on a quarterly basis. If you have questions about this dataset please contact GiGL’s GIS and Data Officer.

Data sources

The boundaries and information in this dataset, are a combination of data collected during the London Survey Method habitat and open space survey programme (1986 – 2008) and information provided to GiGL from other sources since. These sources include London borough surveys, land use datasets, volunteer surveys, feedback from the public, park friends’ groups, and updates made as part of GiGL’s on-going data validation and verification process.

Due to data availability, some areas are more up-to-date than others. We are continually working on updating and improving this dataset. If you have any additional information or corrections for sites included in the Spaces to Visit dataset please contact GiGL’s GIS and Data Officer.

NOTE: The dataset contains OS data © Crown copyright and database rights 2025. The site boundaries are based on Ordnance Survey mapping, and the data are published under Ordnance Survey's 'presumption to publish'. When using these data please acknowledge GiGL and Ordnance Survey as the source of the information using the following citation:

‘Dataset created by Greenspace Information for Greater London CIC (GiGL), 2025 – Contains Ordnance Survey and public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0 ’

The expenditure of international visitors in London was expected to rise by 17 percent between 2023 and 2031. As forecast, spending of inbound tourists in the UK's capital was estimated to total roughly 14.1 billion British pounds in 2023. This number was predicted to grow to nearly 16.6 billion British pounds by 2031. Due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, the international tourist expenditure in London reached in 2021 the lowest figure in over a decade.

Tourist Arrivals in the United Kingdom remained unchanged at 3500 Thousand in September. This dataset provides - United Kingdom Tourist Arrivals- actual values, historical data, forecast, chart, statistics, economic calendar and news.

In 2019, more than *** million visits by French people to London were recorded.

This note addresses two questions: what comparing patterns of attendance at a group of museums and art galleries since 1851 might reveal? and how might the museums themselves have explained those figures? This note considers the rises and falls of visit numbers amongst a sample of 15 London museums over a 160-year period, and how the institutions themselves perceived those figures. The data used here were gathered from the museums’ published annual reports and internal documents, including daybooks and memos. Their presentation here introduces readers to an exceptionally long time series, and to the conventionally neglected voices of museums’ managers, whose circumstances and attitudes informed those museums’ management. These notes show that certain external factors affected simultaneous rises and falls in the majority of museums’ figures across the sample, although there were always exceptions. Some trends are revealed as general tendencies over a number of years. Discrete internal factors, such as temporary closures and exhibitions create peaks and troughs at individual institutions.

During the pandemic, the loss of expenditure in London’s Central Activities Zone (CAZ) due to both workers staying at home and tourists being unable or choosing not to visit has had a major impact on the retail, leisure and hospitality sectors. This analysis seeks to investigate the relative importance of these two cohorts to the CAZ. We estimate local expenditure from commuters to the CAZ in 2020, in a scenario with and without Covid-19. We compare this difference to the anticipated drop in inbound and domestic tourist expenditure in 2020, which we estimate by adjusting forecasts for London produced by Visit Britain. We estimate a £10.9bn loss in tourism expenditure in the CAZ (£3.5bn domestic and £7.4bn inbound) compared to a £1.9bn loss in expenditure from commuters to the CAZ (£1.4bn of this expenditure is from commuters from London and £0.5bn is from commuters outside of London).

The number of nights spent on visits by domestic tourists to London peaked at 30.2 million in 2015, but with a sharp drop of nearly four million in 2016. Overnight stays by domestic visitors steadily increased from that year on, reaching approximately 28.48 million in 2019.

This statistic shows the annual number of inbound visits to London for holidays from 2009 to 2019. The number of visits shows a clear upward trend. In 2018 the number of international tourists traveling for holiday/vacation showed a decline for the first time during the observed period, reaching ***** million visits. In 2019, the number of international visits recovered to ***** million. The number of nights spent in London by holiday tourists reflects the tendencies of the visit numbers.

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.

Leisure visitors from London in Europe collectively spent approximately 4.6 billion British pounds in 2019, followed by those visiting friends and relatives who collectively spent almost two billion British pounds.