Find out the top towns for inbound visitors to Britain, as well as how many visits were made by overseas residents to the UK's towns.
The International Passenger Survey (IPS) was impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic from 2020 to June 2022. Therefore the data for 2021 and 2022 below has some caveats which can be found detailed on the About IPS page.
You can access the towns data showing the 20 most visited towns and cities by visitors from overseas (XLS, 30KB) as far back as 1999.
Please visit the dedicated pages for national, regional and county data or detailed market information.
Top towns for 'staying visits' by inbound visitors
| 2022 | 2021 | 2019 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 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 |
| 6 | Glasgow | 618 | Glasgow | 116 | Glasgow | 771 |
| 7 | Bristol | 455 | Bristol | 106 | Brighton/Hove | 647 |
| 8 | Cambridge | 440 | Cambridge | 85 | Bristol | 636 |
| 9 | Oxford | 425 | Oxford | 73 | Oxford | 581 |
| 10 | Brighton / Hove | 339 | Brighton | 70 | Cambridge | 462 |
| 11 | Leeds | 289 | Leeds | 53 | Bath | 401 |
| 12 | Bath | 273 | Newcastle | 53 | Cardiff | 382 |
| 13 | Newcastle-upon-Tyne | 248 | Southampton | 47 | Leeds | 338 |
| 14 | Cardiff | 204 | Leicester | 47 | York | 297 |
| 15 | Southampton | 194 | Nottingham | 43 | Newcastle-upon-Tyne | 282 |
| 16 | York | 193 | Luton | 38 | Inverness | 275 |
| 17 | Nottingham | 189 | Cardiff | 37 | Stratford-upon-Avon | 271 |
| 18 | Leicester | 180 | Chester | 35 | Nottingham | 245 |
| 19 | Luton | 165 | Bath | 33 | Coventry | 245 |
| 20 | Inverness | 165 | Reading | 33 | Reading | 237 |
Source: International Passenger Survey, Office for National Statistics. 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.
Detailed data
This Excel document allows you to see how many visitors from overseas went to different towns and cities in the UK. It also shows a breakdown of visits to each town by major overseas markets. You can view visit data for towns by journey purpose, and quarter. Data is available from 2009-2022 (XLS, 14.6MB). Data for many towns is based on small sample sizes, so using 3 or 4 year averages is highly recommended.
Day trips
International Passenger Survey data for towns and cities typically measures staying visits (where visitors stay overnight). This report (PDF, 1.8MB) looks at where inbound visitors to the UK go on day trips, based on an extra question VisitBritain sponsored on the International Passenger Survey in 2016. Read about the top destinations for day trips and characteristics of day trippers.
