1. Inbound research & insights
  2. Inbound tourism performance
  3. Inbound nation, region & county data

Inbound nation, region & county data

International visitors make it to just about every corner of Britain during the course of the year. Explore full year data using the filter options on the graphs and charts below.

From 22 May we will be working to update all of the data and documents on this page following the Office of National Statistics (ONS) revision of the International Passenger Survey (IPS) data for 2009-2018 and the released detailed 2019 data. UK data will be updated first and followed by the regional data from 27 May. Please be patient as we update these pages or contact the VisitBritain research team if you have any questions- VB/VEResearch@visitbritain.org. Thank you.

If you would like to see the latest quarterly data and trends by quarter, visit out latest data by area page.

Please note that visitors sometimes spend nights in more than one location during their trip.  This means that 'visits' figures will not necessarily sum to the national total (eg. visits to London + visits to rest of England > visits to total England). Expenditure data in the CSV file excludes spending of nil-nights transit visitors to the UK and visitors departing directly from the Channel Islands.

An important note about the survey's methodology 

  • Visitors who spend at least one night in the UK during their trip are asked where they stayed.  This information can then be aggregated to look at the number of visits, nights, and spending in different regions, cities, and towns.
  • Information at the regional level is often based on very small sample sizes, and as such should be treated with extreme caution, and used solely as an indicative estimate.  The International Passenger Survey is a national survey, and is not designed to be statistically robust at the regional level.
  • Visitors often spend nights in more than one location during their trip.  This means that when looking at ‘visits’ values for different regions will not sum to the national total – for example a visitor from the US making a single visit to the UK could be counted as making a ‘staying visit’ to London, to Edinburgh and to Chester.
  • The data includes a ‘Total UK’ category, representing the true national total for visits. 
  • ‘Double counting’ is not an issue when looking at visitor nights or spending.
  • No information is recorded about where visitors arriving/departing the UK on the same day travel during their trip, nor is information recorded about where ‘staying visitors’ go for ‘day trips’.  If a visitor from France spends four nights in Edinburgh they may take a day trip to St Andrews and another to Stirling, but this information will not be recorded in the International Passenger Survey.

A note on the English regions

  • Data for each of the English regions can be viewed individually, or at an aggregated level.
  • The aggregated levels available are:
  • Rest of England: all regions outside London combined
  • England's North Country: North East, North West and Yorkshire combined
  • Central England: West Midlands, East Midlands and East of England combined
  • Southern England: South East and South West combined
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You can only select one period at a time if multiple countries are selected.

Applied filters:

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Display:

Drag to change year on charts and tables.

Touch the data points to see the values.

OVERVIEW OF UK VISITOR STATISTICS {{activeYear.name}}

Number of visits

{{totalVisits | fixUnits}}

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{{item.name}} {{item.data | fixUnits}}

Total expenditure (GBP)

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{{item.name}} {{item.data | spendUnits}}

Total nights spent

{{totalNights | fixUnits}}

{{ totalNightsPerc == 'Infinity' ? '-' : totalNightsPerc >= 0 ? '+' + totalNightsPerc.toFixed(2) + '%' : totalNightsPerc.toFixed(2) + '%' }}

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Average length of stay (Nights)

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{{ isNaN(avgStayPerc) ? '-' : avgStayPerc >= 0 ? '+' + avgStayPerc.toFixed(2) + '%' : avgStayPerc.toFixed(2) + '%' }}

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Average spend per visit (GBP)

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{{ isNaN(avgSpendPerc) ? '-' : avgSpendPerc >= 0 ? '+' + avgSpendPerc.toFixed(2) + '%' : avgSpendPerc.toFixed(2) + '%' }}

{{item.name}} {{item.data | spendUnits(0, 'hideUnit')}}

* Change from {{Number(activeYear.name) - 1}}

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{{yearSeasonality | spendUnits}} {{filteredDataWording ? '(Filtered total)' : '(Total)'}}

{{yearSeasonality | fixUnits}} {{filteredDataWording ? '(Filtered total)' : '(Total)'}}

Quarter {{activeDisplay}} %
{{ item.name }} {{ item.data[0] | spendUnits }} {{ item.data[0] | fixUnits }} {{ (item.data[0] * 100 / yearSeasonality).toFixed(2) }}%
{{item}} {{ seasonalityBox.data_pie.series[index] | spendUnits }} {{ seasonalityBox.data_pie.series[index] | fixUnits }} {{ (seasonalityBox.data_pie.series[index] * 100 / yearSeasonality).toFixed(2) }}%
{{item.name}} {{ item.data[index] | spendUnits }} {{ item.data[index] | fixUnits }} {{ (item.data[index] * 100 / yearSeasonality).toFixed(2) }}%

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{{yearPurpose | spendUnits}} {{filteredDataWording ? '(Filtered total)' : '(Total)'}}

{{yearPurpose | fixUnits}} {{filteredDataWording ? '(Filtered total)' : '(Total)'}}

Purpose {{activeDisplay}} %
{{ item.name }} {{ item.data[0] | spendUnits }} {{ item.data[0] | fixUnits }} {{ (item.data[0] * 100 / yearPurpose).toFixed(2) }}%
{{item}} {{ journeyBox.data_pie.series[index] | spendUnits }} {{ journeyBox.data_pie.series[index] | fixUnits }} {{ (journeyBox.data_pie.series[index] * 100 / yearPurpose).toFixed(2) }}%
{{item.name}} {{ item.data[index] | spendUnits }} {{ item.data[index] | fixUnits }} {{ (item.data[index] * 100 / yearPurpose).toFixed(2) }}%

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{{yearDuration | spendUnits}} {{filteredDataWording ? '(Filtered total)' : '(Total)'}}

{{yearDuration | fixUnits}} {{filteredDataWording ? '(Filtered total)' : '(Total)'}}

Duration {{activeDisplay}} %
{{ item.name }} {{ item.data[0] | spendUnits }} {{ item.data[0] | fixUnits }} {{ (item.data[0] * 100 / yearDuration).toFixed(2) }}%
{{item}} {{ durationBox.data_pie.series[index] | spendUnits }} {{ durationBox.data_pie.series[index] | fixUnits }} {{ (durationBox.data_pie.series[index] * 100 / yearDuration).toFixed(2) }}%
{{item.name}} {{ item.data[index] | spendUnits }} {{ item.data[index] | fixUnits }} {{ (item.data[index] * 100 / yearDuration).toFixed(2) }}%

Further resources