In total tourism generated an estimated 145.9 billion British pounds to the UK economy in 2018. A major part of this income came from day visitors, who created a value of 63.8 billion British pounds. UK air fares contributed the smallest amount of three billion pounds.

In June 2024, there were around *** million overseas arrivals in the United Kingdom. This was the highest figure for a month of June since 2019, when it reached over *** million. Based on figures reaching back to January 2018, the month with the highest number of inbound visits came in August 2019, when it totaled **** million.

During the second quarter of 2025, visits abroad from the United Kingdom totaled ******million, which was an increase over the previous quarter. However, this figure remained below pre-pandemic levels for the same month. Over the period considered, monthly outbound visits from the UK peaked at around *****million in the third quarter of 2024. Tourism in the UK during the COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic turned the global tourism industry upside down, with countries worldwide enacting lockdowns and travel bans to limit the spread of the virus. As a result of the emergency measures, the total number of outbound tourist visits from the United Kingdom declined by ** percent in 2020 over the previous year, then dropped even further in 2021, reaching the lowest figure in a decade. Since then, outbound visitation rates not only recovered but reached a record high in 2024, totaling over ** million visits. However, inbound tourist visits in the UK have not recovered at the same rate, with the 2024 figure around five percent lower than in 2019. Contribution of travel and tourism to the economy in the UK In 2024, the total contribution of travel and tourism to GDP in the UK amounted to *** billion British pounds, which was around **** percent higher than before the pandemic. Meanwhile, travel and tourism's total contribution to employment in the UK is significant, with *** million jobs supported by the industry in 2024, which was slightly lower than in 2019.

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

In 2024, the number of overseas resident visits to the United Kingdom totaled 39 million, representing a growth of around three percent from the previous year. 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 2024 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, overseas visitors spent more in 2024 than in 2019, with visitors from the UK’s leading inbound travel market, the United States, spending around 70 percent more during their travels than in 2019. What are the most visited cities in the UK? Unsurprisingly, London has consistently ranked as the most visited town or city in the UK among international tourists in recent years, drawing in over 20 million visitors in 2024. This was around tenfold the number of the second-most visited city, Edinburgh, 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.

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.

International tourism, receipts (% of total exports) in United Kingdom was reported at 5.5398 % in 2018, according to the World Bank collection of development indicators, compiled from officially recognized sources. United Kingdom - International tourism, receipts (% of total exports) - actual values, historical data, forecasts and projections were sourced from the World Bank on November of 2025.

Malaysia Tourist Arrival: Europe: Northern: United Kingdom data was reported at 27,031.000 Person in Sep 2018. This records a decrease from the previous number of 37,019.000 Person for Aug 2018. Malaysia Tourist Arrival: Europe: Northern: United Kingdom data is updated monthly, averaging 24,445.000 Person from Jan 1995 (Median) to Sep 2018, with 285 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 49,421.000 Person in Aug 2010 and a record low of 4,145.000 Person in Feb 1998. Malaysia Tourist Arrival: Europe: Northern: United Kingdom data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by Tourism Malaysia. The data is categorized under Global Database’s Malaysia – Table MY.Q001: Tourist Arrivals.

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 data covers four subject areas, termed 'Airmiles', 'Alcohol', 'Qregtown' and 'Qcontact'. One file is produced each quarter per subject area, and the dataset updated quarterly. These files can be joined together using the variables YEAR, SERIAL, FLOW and QUARTER.

The depositor recommends that only expert users who are very familiar with the coding and weighting structures use these data, as limited support is available. Some considerable understanding of the data is required before meaningful analyses can be made; care must be taken when performing time series operations as codes can vary from year to year and not all variables from one year's dataset are used in other years.

Latest edition information

For the fourth edition (September 2022), a revised Qcontcust 2009-2019 data file was added to the study, with additional category labels added. The data file includes all years from 2009-2019 and users will need to filter the data by year to see cases for individual years.

This statistic shows the number of monthly domestic overnight tourism stays in Great Britain from 2018 to 2019. Numbers peaked in August, with domestic tourists spending a total of **** million nights in 2019.

In September 2023, approximately *** thousand trips were made from North America to the United Kingdom. By contrast, there were *** thousand travelers visiting the UK from North America during the same month in 2022.

Japan Info Needs Upon Arriving: UK: Cultural Experience Programs data was reported at 5.000 Person in Mar 2018. Japan Info Needs Upon Arriving: UK: Cultural Experience Programs data is updated quarterly, averaging 5.000 Person from Mar 2018 (Median) to Mar 2018, with 1 observations. Japan Info Needs Upon Arriving: UK: Cultural Experience Programs data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism. The data is categorized under Global Database’s Japan – Table JP.Q034: Tourism and Leisure: Information Needs Upon Arriving.

Japan Info Needs Upon Arriving: UK: Transport data was reported at 48.000 Person in Mar 2018. Japan Info Needs Upon Arriving: UK: Transport data is updated quarterly, averaging 48.000 Person from Mar 2018 (Median) to Mar 2018, with 1 observations. Japan Info Needs Upon Arriving: UK: Transport data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism. The data is categorized under Global Database’s Japan – Table JP.Q034: Tourism and Leisure: Information Needs Upon Arriving.

Confidence intervals for International Passenger Survey (IPS) quarterly data.

Japan Info Needs Upon Arriving: UK: Natural Experience Programs data was reported at 5.000 Person in Mar 2018. Japan Info Needs Upon Arriving: UK: Natural Experience Programs data is updated quarterly, averaging 5.000 Person from Mar 2018 (Median) to Mar 2018, with 1 observations. Japan Info Needs Upon Arriving: UK: Natural Experience Programs data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism. The data is categorized under Global Database’s Japan – Table JP.Q034: Tourism and Leisure: Information Needs Upon Arriving.

Japan Info Needs Upon Arriving: UK: Accommodation Facilities data was reported at 38.000 Person in Mar 2018. This records an increase from the previous number of 15.000 Person for Dec 2017. Japan Info Needs Upon Arriving: UK: Accommodation Facilities data is updated quarterly, averaging 19.000 Person from Mar 2014 (Median) to Mar 2018, with 17 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 38.000 Person in Mar 2018 and a record low of 12.000 Person in Dec 2015. Japan Info Needs Upon Arriving: UK: Accommodation Facilities data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism. The data is categorized under Global Database’s Japan – Table JP.Q034: Tourism and Leisure: Information Needs Upon Arriving.