London was by far the most visited city by international tourists in the United Kingdom in 2023. That year, inbound visits to the UK's capital totaled just over 20 million, staying roughly seven percent lower than in 2019, prior to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. Edinburgh and Manchester followed in the ranking, reporting around 2.3 million and 1.7 million visits, respectively. Overall, the number of inbound visits to the UK reached 38 million in 2023 but remained below pre-pandemic levels. What is the leading tourist attraction in London? Tourists visit London for a variety of reasons, not the least of which is its attractions. In 2023, the British Museum was London’s most visited tourist attraction, drawing in approximately 5.8 million visitors. The Natural History Museum in South Kensington and the Tate Modern came next in the ranking, with about 5.7 and 4.7 million visitors, respectively. While attendance at many of London’s top tourist attractions saw a significant increase in 2023 compared to the previous year, attendance generally remained below pre-pandemic levels. What is the leading region for summer staycations in the UK? A 'staycation' typically refers to a holiday spent in one's home country rather than abroad. It can also refer to a holiday spent at home involving day trips to local attractions. The leading region for summer staycations in the UK, according to an April 2024 survey, was the South West. Meanwhile, 12 percent of respondents said that they intended to visit Scotland during their summer holiday while only three percent stated that they would like to visit Northern Ireland. London came second in the ranking.

When surveyed in the fourth quarter of 2024, it was found that York was the most popular city in the United Kingdom among residents of the UK. In total, 76 percent of the UK public had a popular opinion of the city, which is famed for its historical architecture.

London was the most visited city destination in England for domestic holiday trips from 2017 to 2019. Overall, the city recorded a three-year average of roughly 3.9 million holidays taken by GB residents. Scarborough and Manchester followed on the ranking with a three-year average of around 1.1 million and one million domestic vacations, respectively.

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.

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.

London ranks as the most visited city or town in England by British residents, with a three year average of over 12 million overnight trips made between 2017 and 2019. Visits to regional cities were significantly lower, though over two million trips were recorded in Manchester and Birmingham respectively. They were also among the most visited cities by international tourists to the UK.

London was by far the city with the highest international tourism spending in the United Kingdom in 2023. That year, inbound travel expenditure in the UK's capital amounted to 16.7 million British pounds. Meanwhile, Edinburgh and Manchester ranked second and third, respectively. These ranking positions were matched in the list of cities in the UK with the highest number of international visits.

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. Data shows London totals for nights, visits, and spend. Data broken down by age, purpose, duration, mode and country. This data is also available from Visit Britain website, including the latest quarterly data for other regions. All data taken from the International Passenger Survey (IPS). 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 in Mastercard's Global Destination Cities Index of 2012, 2013, 2014, and 2015. This dataset is included in the Greater London Authority's Night Time Observatory. Click here to find out more.

In 2019, London was by far the most visited UK city for vacation trips. Overall, it recorded over 11 million visits by holiday tourists. Edinburgh and Manchester followed on the list. Overall, London, Edinburgh, and Manchester also ranked as the most visited UK cities by international travelers

This table contains 45 series, with data for years 2014 - 2014 (not all combinations necessarily have data for all years). This table contains data described by the following dimensions (Not all combinations are available): Geography (1 item: Canada) Countries visited (15 items: United States; Mexico; United Kingdom; France; ...) Travel characteristics (3 items: Visits; Nights; Spending in country).

In 2023, London played a prominent role in supporting international tourism in the United Kingdom. That year, the UK's capital accounted for roughly 53 percent of all inbound tourist arrivals in the country. Meanwhile, Paris represented around 22 percent of the international arrivals to France, whereas travelers to Barcelona made up 14 percent of inbound tourist arrivals in Spain in 2023. What are the most visited European cities? When looking at the number of inbound tourist arrivals to leading travel destinations in Europe, Paris and Île-de-France, the region surrounding the French capital, recorded the highest figure in 2023, with nearly 22 million arrivals. London and Istanbul, also among the leading city tourism destinations in Europe based on the number of bed nights, followed in the ranking that year, with over 20 million and 17 million inbound tourist arrivals, respectively. What are the most visited European countries? Both before and after the impact of the health crisis, France was the most visited European country by international travelers. In 2023, it reported 100 million inbound arrivals, ranking ahead of Spain, Italy, and Turkey. On the other hand, Spain was the European country with the highest number of inbound tourism receipts, followed by the United Kingdom.

SafeGraph Places provides baseline information for every record in the SafeGraph product suite via the Places schema and polygon information when applicable via the Geometry schema. The current scope of a place is defined as any location humans can visit with the exception of single-family homes. This definition encompasses a diverse set of places ranging from restaurants, grocery stores, and malls; to parks, hospitals, museums, offices, and industrial parks. Premium sets of Places include apartment buildings, Parking Lots, and Point POIs (such as ATMs or transit stations).

SafeGraph Places is a point of interest (POI) data offering with varying coverage depending on the country. Note that address conventions and formatting vary across countries. SafeGraph has coalesced these fields into the Places schema.

SafeGraph provides clean and accurate geospatial datasets on 51M+ physical places/points of interest (POI) globally. Hundreds of industry leaders like Mapbox, Verizon, Clear Channel, and Esri already rely on SafeGraph POI data to unlock business insights and drive innovation.

This dataset contains more than 1.7M United Kingdom POI across all categories with a limited set of essential columns.

France was the most visited destination for business travelers from the United Kingdom in 2023, accounting for around 772,100 visits. In the second place was the United States, where UK business tourists paid approximately 713,200 visits in that year.

Main Topics:

Attitudinal/Behavioural Questions
Period of time spent in Britain, towns where overnight stays were made, other places visited, travel method, reason for coming to Britain and expectations of visit, whether visit was as expected; amount spent; most and least enjoyable aspects; satisfaction with meals and whether food eaten was traditional British or other; source of information about Britain prior to travel, satisfaction with information provided; when accomodation was booked; type of transport used to reach Britain.
Background Variable
Sex, age, occupation, socio-economic status, newspapers and magazines read.

Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONBs) are designated areas where protection is afforded to protect and manage the areas for visitors and local residents. AONBs are also known as National Landscapes.Under the Countryside and Rights of Way Act 2000, Natural England has the power to designate AONBs in England that are outside national parks and that are considered to have such natural beauty it is desirable they are conserved and enhanced; issue a variation order to change an existing AONB boundary. It also holds a duty to give advice on developments taking place in an AONB; take into account the conservation and enhancement of AONBs in its work.National Landscapes are living places. Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty is not a nature designation, and caring for the natural beauty of these places involves more than habitat restoration.There are 46 National Landscapes in the UK. These are places with national importance, protected for the nation's benefit, but cared for by local teams with a deep understanding of the distinctive web of interconnecting factors that make these places special.The physical geography in a National Landscape: the unique combination of landform, climate and geology determines which species thrive, which industries grow, and therefore the heritage, language and culture of the individual place.For more information visit https://national-landscapes.org.uk/.Full metadata can be viewed on data.gov.uk.

Abstract copyright UK Data Service and data collection copyright owner.

The International Passenger Survey (IPS) aims to collect data on both credits and debits for the travel account of the Balance of Payments, provide detailed visit information on overseas visitors to the United Kingdom (UK) for tourism policy, and collect data on international migration.

The International Passenger Survey (IPS) aims to collect data on both credits and debits for the travel account of the Balance of Payments, provide detailed visit information on overseas visitors to the United Kingdom (UK) for tourism policy, and collect data on international migration.

For the International Passenger Survey 2023, additional variables have been included in the “QReg” dataset, as detailed in the linked document. The “Custom” dataset is the updated version of “QcontCust,” with changes also outlined in the linked document. The “QReg” dataset has been expanded to provide more variables for analysis. The “Custom” dataset has been updated with extra variables for enhanced analysis and updated variable names where necessary.

Main Topics:

Each of the four subject areas of this study covers different topics, as it follows:

'Airmiles': quarter; flow; serial; UK port or route; direct leg overseas port; final overseas port; distance from UK port to first port; from first to second port; from UK port to second port

'Alcohol': year; quarter; month; flow; serial; money spent on spirits; wine; beer; champagne; cigarettes; hand-rolled and other tobacco

'Qreg': year; quarter; month; flow; serial; towns stayed in overnight; details of type of accommodation; number of nights spent in towns; expenditure in towns; regional stay weight; regional visit weight; regional expenditure weight; various validation checks

'Custom': year; quarter; month; flow; serial; nationality; country of visit/residence; UK counties; date visit began; purpose of visit; intended length of stay; number of people; package tour and cost; expenditure pre-, post- and during visit; flight prefix and suffix; first carrier air or shipping line; direct leg overseas port; final overseas port; long- or short-haul; type of vehicle; number travelling in vehicle; fare type and cost; class of travel; business trip; type of flight; flight origin or destination; gender; age group; UK port or route; quality of response; date of interview; money transfer, net and total expenditure; type of transport; arrivals (number of adults); departures (type of travelling group, number of adults and children); weighting variables; various validation checks

Spain was the most visited country by residents of the United Kingdom in 2023, with approximately 17.81 million visits. This figure was marginally lower than in 2019, prior to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. Meanwhile, France, Italy, and Greece followed in the ranking in 2023; of these, only Greece reported a higher number of visits that year compared to pre-pandemic levels. Spain still a favorite among UK holidaymakers Spain has become a firm favorite among holiday travelers from Britain, as it continually lists as the most visited holiday destination abroad. Beach holidays are popular among Brits in search of warmer climates, and the relative ease and cheapness of package holidays to the Mediterranean make it possible. Along with France and Germany, the UK is one of the key inbound travel markets for Spain. Outbound tourism from the UK during the COVID-19 pandemic As suggested by the figures recorded by the leading outbound travel destinations, the number of visits abroad from the United Kingdom rebounded in 2022 but had not yet caught up with pre-pandemic levels as of 2023, totaling around 86 million that year. As the volume of visits bounced back, the outbound tourism expenditure in the UK also experienced a sharp annual increase in 2022 and in fact exceeded pre-pandemic levels in 2023.

In 2023, London recorded the highest number of visits for business travel from overseas in the United Kingdom, with 2.98 million visits. Meanwhile, Birmingham ranked second with 427,000.

Younger audiences dominate TikTok, a social video app that is also used extensively by influencers and travel bloggers. In April 2023, Barcelona was the city in Europe with the most TikTok views, amassing over 106 billion views of videos tagged with the city's name. London was also extremely popular with TikTok users, totaling over 68.6 billion views in April 2023, making the UK capital one of the most danceable cities in Europe. Other popular European cities tagged on the app were Paris, Istanbul, and Madrid.