VisitBritain

Inbound visits and spend: annual, UK

See the latest annual UK level estimates of the number of visits to the UK, spend by inbound visitors and nights spent in the UK, based on the International Passenger Survey (IPS) released by the Office of National Statistics.

Released on:

17 May 2024

Next release:

to be confirmed

For further information, please contact research@visitbritain.org.

Report highlights

  • In 2023, the UK welcomed 38.0m inbound visits. Visits were below pre-pandemic levels (2019) by 7% but were up 21% vs 2022.
  • Inbound visitors spent a record £31.1bn during 2023, up 9% vs 2019 and up 17% vs 2022. Taking inflation into account, visitor spend was down 10% vs 2019 and up 9% vs 2022.
  • Overall, 292.9m nights were spent in the UK in 2023, up 1% vs 2019 and up 11% vs 2022.
  • The average spend per visit (SPV) by inbound visitors was £819 per visit in 2023, up 18% vs 2019 but down 3% vs 2022. In real terms, SPV was down 3% vs 2019 and down 10% vs 2022. 
  • Visitors stayed an average of 7.7 nights in 2023, which has been decreasing since 2021 but remains above 2019 (7.1 nights).
  • Average spend per night (SPN) was £106 in 2023, up 8% vs 2019 and up 5% vs 2022. In real terms, SPN was down 11% vs 2019 and down 2% vs 2022. 

Please note these are the final 2023 estimates. In the summary report, you can find further detail by journey purpose, global region and inbound market. See the Q4 results for 2023 and view the nations and regions summary for 2023.

View the latest report

PDF

2023 IPS Total UK Summary (Published 17th May 2024)

Access the final estimates for 2023 in our summary report which covers headlines and distribution by journey purpose, global regions and selected markets.

Download (1.01 MB)

IPS Total UK data, pivot tables 2019-2023 (Published 17 May 2024)

Download the data in Excel and explore the detail in the pre-built pivot tables.

Download (9.99 MB)

Explore the Total UK inbound data in full

Use our visualisations to see this data in greater depth and clarity. Filter by season, inbound market, purpose, mode, trip duration and nationality.

Further analysis

States of Residence 2014-2022

Find out where visitors from inbound markets to the UK reside in their own country (2014-2022)

Download (212.76 KB)

Market growth and rank from 2003-2022

See how inbound markets to the UK rank for different measures such as visits, spend and nights.

Download (528.12 KB)

Top 50 inbound tourism markets to the UK from 2009-2022

Find out the top 50 inbound markets for visits, spend and nights.

Download (95.78 KB)

Visits and spend from smaller/emerging inbound markets (2005-2022)

Find out tourism info from the smaller inbound markets to the UK

Download (528.12 KB)

Overseas residents to the UK vs UK residents going abroad

See how much tourism brings to the UK compared to how much UK residents spend abroad

Download (71.71 KB)

IPS spend and visits since 1964

See historical IPS data for visits and spend since 1964

Download (71.71 KB)
XLS

IPS trends 1979 - 2022

See trend data for a limited number of markets since 1979

Download (3.93 MB)

IPS Accommodation Trends 2004-2022

See where inbound visitors are staying in the UK.

Download (13.64 MB)

About the survey

The International Passenger Survey (IPS) is a continuous survey carried out by the Office for National Statistics (ONS). It covers all major air, sea and tunnel ports, providing detailed information on the numbers and types of visits made by people travelling to and from the UK.

From January to June 2022, the ONS was unable to restart interviewing at Eurotunnel due to COVID-19 restrictions so data for those travelling via this port is excluded for this time period. Interviewing at Eurostar was not affected by COVID-19 restrictions during this period. The ONS restarted IPS interviews at all ports from July 2022.

Please see About IPS for further information and the ONS.

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