Skip page header and navigation
VisitBritain

Inbound visits and spend: trends by UK town

Find out the top towns for inbound visitors to Britain as well as how many visits they made to UK towns. Data is from the International Passenger Survey (IPS) released by the Office of National Statistics.

Released on:

26 May 2023

Next release:

to be confirmed

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

Report highlights

In 2022, there were fewer overnight visits to UK towns by inbound visitors than in 2019.

The top five most-visited UK towns (for overnight visits by inbound visitors) were: 

  • London 

  • Edinburgh

  • Manchester

  • Birmingham

  • Liverpool

  •  2022 2021 2019 

    Rank

     Town/city

    Visits

    (000s)

    Town/city

    Visits

    (000s)

    Town/city

    Visits

    (000s)

    1

    London

    16,118

    London

    2,723

    London

    21,713

    2

    Edinburgh

    1,796

    Manchester

    306

    Edinburgh

    2,206

    3

    Manchester

    1,230

    Birmingham 

    205

    Manchester

    1,661

    4

    Birmingham 

    803

    Edinburgh

    199

    Birmingham

    1,112

    5

    Liverpool

    680

    Liverpool

    139

    Liverpool

    845

    6Glasgow618Glasgow116Glasgow771
    7Bristol455Bristol106Brighton/Hove 647
    8Cambridge440Cambridge85Bristol636
    9Oxford425Oxford73Oxford581
    10Brighton/Hove 339Brighton70Cambridge462
    11Leeds289Leeds53Bath401
    12Bath273Newcastle53Cardiff382
    13Newcastle248Southampton 47Leeds338
    14Cardiff204Leicester47York297
    15Southampton194Nottingham43Newcastle282
    16York193Luton38Inverness275
    17Nottingham189Cardiff37Stratford-upon-Avon 271
    18Leicester180Chester35Nottingham245
    19Luton165Bath33Coventry245
    20Inverness165Reading33Reading237

    Please note that figures are based on small sample sizes for all cities with the exception of London and should therefore be treated with caution.

View the latest report

Top Towns Historical 1999 - 2022.xlsx

See the top ranking towns in the UK by the volume of visits received by inbound tourists

Download (29.07 KB)

Detailed towns data 2009 - 2022.xlsx

Find out how many visitors went to different towns and cities in the UK and which inbound markets they came from. You can also explore the data by journey purpose and quarter.

Download (13.96 MB)
PDF

Top destinations for day trips & characteristics of day trippers (1).pdf

IPS data for towns and cities typically measures overnight visits. However, this report looks at where inbound visitors to the UK went on day trips, based on a sponsored question in 2016.

Download (1.79 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.