Card spending data
Card spending: inbound visitor trends
Report highlights
- Total spend and card count grew year on year in 2023 above rates of inflation; spend by 28% (in real terms), and card count by 28%.
- Spending behaviour appears to be shifting as the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic recede. In 2023, inbound visitors made more frequent, smaller purchases, and displayed lower spend per visit and length of stay compared to 2022.
- Almost a third of in-person inbound card spend in 2023 was in retail, and over a quarter in restaurants/nightlife. There was a lot of variation in spending patterns by market and region. What inbound travellers spent their money on also evolved in the post-COVID period, with eating out, nightlife and hotels taking greater share of spend, but retail spend becoming less prominent, as more typical tourism behaviour has resumed.
- The top sources of inbound spend in 2023 were the USA, Irish Republic, France, Saudi Arabia, and Australia. Inbound spend in 2023 was most likely to go to Southern England, with Greater London taking the lion’s share, followed by Scotland, Northern England, Midlands England, and then Wales.
View the inbound report
Card Spending to Britain - Inbound Report (Published August 2024)
About the report
In early 2024, VisitBritain/VisitEngland gained access to card spending insights via the ‘Visa Destination Insights’ dashboard. This dashboard offers data on monthly spend by domestic and inbound visitors to Britain in addition to a range of other key metrics designed to uncover visitor spending behaviour. Trends can be analysed by visitor origin, card type, the merchant categories which money was spent on, and more.
Definition of key metrics:
- Spend amount refers to the total spend taking place in an area for a selected period of time.
- Card count refers to the total unique Visa cards used in transactions within an area for a selected period of time
- Transaction count refers to the total transactions taken place in an area for a selected period of time.
- Average spend per transaction is calculated by dividing total spend by transaction count.
- Average stay duration and average spend per trip are calculated based on identifying ‘trips’ where travellers made purchases outside their residence for a period of two days or more. Stay duration is based on the dates of first and last transactions in Britain.
The published report focuses on the card spending of inbound visitors to Britain from 2021 to 2023. An ‘inbound visitor’ is defined as a cardholder of an international Visa card, who has made purchases within Britain. International cardholders who make purchases in Britain for a period of 3 months or more are excluded as ‘international residents’.
