VisitBritain

Inbound visits and spend: annual, regional

See the latest annual estimates of the number of visits to the UK and total spend by inbound visitors, by UK area, based on the International Passenger Survey released by the Office of National Statistics.

Released on:

17 May 2024

Next release:

to be confirmed

For further information, please contact [email protected].

Report highlights

  • The majority of nations and regions saw growth in inbound visits vs 2022 but remained below 2019 levels. Most also saw record spend in nominal terms.
  • Of the 38.0m inbound visit to the UK in 2023, London received a little over half (53%). This is in line with the proportions of visits received prior to COVID-19 and 2022. Visitors to London spent a record £16.7bn in the capital in 2023, up 6% on 2019 and up 18% vs 2022.
  • The most visited England regions (excluding London) in 2023 were the South East (4.3m visits), the North West (3.4m visits) and the South West (2.4m visits). Of the English regions (outside London), the South East (£2.5bn spend), the North West (£2.2bn spend) and the South West (£1.5bn spend) reported the largest value.
  • Scotland posted the strongest recovery and was the only nation/region to surpass 2019 levels at a record 4.0m visits in 2023. Inbound visitors spent a record setting £3.6bn in Scotland, up 41% vs 2019 and up 13% vs 2022.
  • Although visits to Wales were 13% below 2019 levels, it did show the strongest recovery vs 2022 (up 30% vs 2022 with 892,000 visits). Visitors to Wales spent £458 million in 2023, still below pre-pandemic levels (-11%) but higher than in 2022 (16%).

Please note these are the final 2023 estimates. In the summary report, you can find further detail on English regions. See the results for Q4 2023 and view the UK total summary for 2023.

View the latest report

PDF

IPS Nations and Regions Summary 2023 (Published 17 May 2024)

Access the final estimates for 2023 in our summary report which covers headlines and distribution by UK nation and English regions.

Download (524.72 KB)

IPS Nations and Regions 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 (10.54 MB)

Explore the Nations & Regions inbound data in full

Use our visualisations to see this data in greater depth and clarity. Filter by inbound market, UK nation, UK region, season and purpose.

Further analysis

Regional Spread by Year 2002 - 2023 pivot tables

See regional spread of inbound visitors to the UK from 2002 - 2023 via pre-built pivot tables

Download (3.24 MB)

IPS Subregional Trend By Purpose and Country 2009-2023

See subregional data including England counties by purpose and country, using data from the IPS.

Download (23.48 MB)

Subregions vs Purpose and Accommodation 2001 - 2023

Subregional data for accommodation usage by inbound visitors to the UK.

Download (8.01 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.

An important note about the survey’s methodology when interpreting regional data:

  • Visitors who spend at least one night in the UK during their trip are asked where they stayed. This information can be aggregated to look at the number of visits, nights, and spending in different regions, cities, and towns.
  • Information at the regional level is often based on very small sample sizes, and as such should be treated with extreme caution, and used solely as an indicative estimate. The IPS is a national survey, and is not designed to be statistically robust at the regional level.
  • Visitors often spend nights in more than one location during their trip. This means that ‘visits’ values for different regions will not sum to the national total – for example a visitor from the US making a single visit to the UK could be counted as making a ‘staying visit’ to London, to Edinburgh and to Chester.
  • The data includes a ‘Total UK’ category, representing the true national total for visits. 
  • ‘Double counting’ is not an issue when looking at visitor nights or spending.
  • No information is recorded about where visitors arriving or departing the UK on the same day travel during their trip, nor is information recorded about where ‘staying visitors’ go for ‘day trips’. If a visitor from France spends four nights in Edinburgh, they may take a day trip to St Andrews and another to Stirling, but this information will not be recorded in the IPS.

A note on the English regions

Data for each of the English regions can be viewed individually, or at an aggregated level. The aggregated levels available are:

  • Rest of England: all regions outside London combined.
  • England’s North Country: North East, North West and Yorkshire combined.
  • Central England: West Midlands, East Midlands and East of England combined.
  • Southern England: South East and South West combined.

Please see About IPS for further information and the ONS.

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