VisitEngland

Great Britain domestic day visits: latest results

Find the latest data on day visits that British residents took in Britain and England – including when they took these visits, for what purpose, their total expenditure and the number of nights they stayed.

Released on:

12 March 2024

Next release:

to be confirmed

For further information, please contact [email protected].

Note

NOTE: This statistical release contains annual provisional estimates for 2023. This series will now be subject to a methodological review. Following this review, estimates published in this release will change. Please use caution in interpreting or using the provisional figures published here. Please see our Statement on methodological review (PDF, 190.07 KB) for more details.

Report highlights

England:

  • Volume: day visits increased in 2023 vs 2022 with the first half of the year showing stronger growth, likely due to the impact of COVID-19 in early 2022.

  • Value: Spend was up vs 2022 in both nominal and real (inflation adjusted) terms.

  • Average spend per visit: was up vs 2022 in nominal terms but in real terms it saw a slight decline.

  • Regions: London saw the largest share and strongest year on year growth for both visits and spend out of all the English regions, echoed by the growth in visits to large cities and towns more broadly. Behind London, the South East accounted for the highest volume and value across 2023.

  • Activity: Visiting friends and relatives remained the most frequent type of visit although growth was flat vs 2022. Visits to attractions were up. VFR trips and those who went for food and drink/a night out/speciality shopping accumulated the most spend in 2023. 

View the latest report

PDF

Report: Domestic day visits Q4 2023 and 2023 overall (Published 12th March 2024)

Access the findings in our summary report which covers headlines, regional distribution and trip characteristics from the Great Britain Day Visits Survey (GBDVS).

Download (4.22 MB)

Data: Domestic day visits Q4 2023 and 2023 overall (Published 12th March 2024)

Download the data in Excel and explore the detail in the pre-built pivot tables, from the Great Britain Day Visits Survey (GBDVS).

Download (15.72 MB)
PDF

Background Quality Report: Domestic day visits in 2023 (Published 12th March 2024)

See the BQR for an overview of the project, methodology details and the full GBDVS questionnaire.

Download (921.85 KB)

Pre-release access

Pre-release access for the Day Visits data for Q4 2023 and 2023 overall data was provided 24 hours ahead of publication to the following individuals:

VisitEngland: Patricia Yates, Andrew Stokes, Lyndsey Turner-Swift, Shivah Jahangir-Tafreshi, Louise Bryce,Tracey Edginton, Charlotte Sanders, Dipika Ghose, Thomas Clues, Rachael Farrington, Anke Monestel, Pauline Stobbs and James Sandy

DCMS: Benjamin Kay, Duncan Parish, Ellie Fox, Heather Monro, Lata Mistry, Phoebe Coleman, Robyn Schaffer and Sarah Lasher 

About the survey

The Great Britain Tourism Survey: Day Visits is a national consumer survey measuring the volume and value of domestic day trips taken by residents of Britain, and provides detailed information about trip and visitor characteristics.

The statistics from 2021 onwards below are based on a new combined online survey that replaces the separate Great Britain Tourism Survey and GBDVS that ran until the end of 2019.

Fieldwork for 2020 and the first three months of 2021 was impacted by COVID-19 related travel restrictions. Therefore, 2021 data only refers to April-December 2021.

Previous reports to the ones hosted on this page can be found on the Day Visits archive page.

The results include data for three definitions of leisure day visits:

  1. Tourism Day Visits (the standard definition);
  2. 3+ hour Leisure Day Visits (the broadest measure);
  3. Tourism Day Visits – Activities Core to Tourism (the narrowest measure).

The Great Britain Tourism Survey: Day Visits is designated as official statistics and follows the Code of Practice for Official Statistics (2022) set by the Office for Statistics Regulation.

VisitEngland jointly sponsors the survey with our partners VisitScotland and VisitWales.
 

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