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The number of inbound tourists hit new records in 2015 with 35.8 million visits, up 4% compared with the 2014.
That’s according to the Office for National Statistics’ (ONS) International Passenger Survey which found there were six million more visits from overseas visitors in 2015 than 2010, an increase of 20%.
Visitors spent £21.8bn in the UK last year, which was in line with 2014’s record breaking figure. However, visitors spent £1.7bn in December alone last year, a new record for the month and 1% up on December 2014.
Patricia Yates, director of VisitBritain, said: “This growth is really fantastic news for the UK economy and shows we’re on track to realise our ambition to grow international visits by more than 20% to 42 million by 2020, which could see an additional £4.5bn in visitor spend, as well as driving tourism across all our nations and region so its benefits are felt across the whole of Britain.”
Visits from North America showed growth of 8% last year compared with 2014, with 3.9 million visits, while 2015 was also a record year for 2015 from the high volume EU15 markets, with a 2% increase on 2014 to 19.9m visits.
A record was also set for visits from the ‘rest of the world’ with 5.6 million, a 6% increase on 2014.
Regarding the types of journeys made, record results were seen in the number of holiday visits to the UK with 13.7 million visits – 1% up on 2014 – with a 7% increase in those visiting friends and relatives to 10.5 million.
Meanwhile, visits for business increased 6% on 2014 with 8.7 million visits and people coming for other reasons – defined by the International Passenger Survey as miscellaneous journey purposes – was up 5% on 2014 with 2.9 million visits.
