VisitBritain

Inbound visits and spend: annual, UK

See the latest annual UK level estimates of the number of visits to the UK, spend by inbound visitors and nights spent in the UK, based on the International Passenger Survey (IPS) released by the Office of National Statistics.

Released on:

26 August 2025

Next release:

to be confirmed

For further information, please contact [email protected].

Report highlights

VisitBritain’s modelled estimates suggest that inbound visits to the UK in 2024 were slightly below pre-COVID (2019) levels but higher than in 2023. Visitor spending was up compared to 2023 and 2019 in nominal terms, while real-terms spend remained below 2019 but above 2023. 

UK:

  • Final IPS estimates for 2024 from the ONS indicate that there were 42.6m inbound visits to the UK in 2024 with those visitors spending a total of £32.5bn and staying for a total of 293m nights in the UK. We caution that these are statistics in development.
  • VisitBritain modelled estimates (see slide 3 for more information) suggest that visits were just (1%) below pre-COVID levels and were up 6% vs 2023. Inbound visitor spending was up 14% vs 2019 and up 5% vs 2023. When adjusted for inflation (real terms), spend in 2024 was down 8% vs 2019 but up 2% vs 2023. Nights spent in the UK were just above 2019 and 2023 levels.

GB:

  • VFR visits saw record visits in 2024 whilst spend declined YoY, holiday visits grew YoY whilst spend was on par, and business visits were still quite down vs 2019 but saw moderate growth vs 2023 (with spend above both above 2019 and 2023).
  • European visits were just short of pre-COVID levels but saw growth vs 2023 with record spend, North America led recovery seeing both record visits and spend in 2024, whilst Rest of World saw YoY declines in visits and spend although there is much variation by market.
  • Visits from USA, France and Germany led for volume in 2024 with alongside growing demand from Australia, New Zealand and Saudi Arabia. For spend, the USA and GCC were the highest spending markets with European markets seeing the highest YoY growth and New Zealand, USA and Austria showing highest growth vs pre-COVID. China showed strong YoY growth in visits, although overall recovery from North East Asian markets remains sluggish vs pre-COVID levels for both visits and spend.

Please note, 2024 data is badged as ‘official statistics in development’ and estimates are subject to future change as further improvements to the methods are introduced. See the ‘About the survey’ section at the bottom of this page for more detail on caveats to the data. 

See the annual results for 2024 by nations and regions.

View the latest report

PDF

2024 IPS UK Total Inbound Update (Published 26 August 2025)

Access the final estimates for 2024 in our summary report which covers the headlines and distribution by journey purpose, global regions and selected markets.

IPS Total UK/GB pivot tables 2019-2024 (Published 26 August 2025)

Download the data in Excel and explore the detail in the pre-built pivot tables.

Explore the Total UK inbound data in full

Use our visualisations to see this data in greater depth and clarity. Filter by season, inbound market, purpose, mode, trip duration and nationality.

Please note 2024 data is at the GB level.

Further analysis

States of Residence 2014-2023

Find out where visitors from inbound markets to the UK reside in their own country (2014-2023)

Market growth and rank from 2003-2023

See how inbound markets to the UK rank for different measures such as visits, spend and nights using data from the International Passenger Survey.

Top 50 inbound tourism markets to the UK from 2009-2023

Find out the top 50 inbound markets to the UK ranked by visits, using data from the International Passenger Survey.

Visits and spend from smaller/emerging inbound markets (2005-2023)

See data for smaller inbound markets that visit the UK, using data from the International Passenger Survey.

Accommodation Trends 2004-2023

See where inbound visitors are staying in the UK, using data from the International Passenger Survey.

Long term trends - Tourism Travel Account 1958-2023

See historical trends of inbound and outbound spend to and from the UK.

XLS

Long term trends - Market Trends 1979 - 2023

See historical volume and value trends by inbound market the UK.

Long term trends - Arrivals and Receipts 1964-2023

See historical volume and value trends to the UK.

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.

Please note due to the ONS’ ongoing planned improvements to the travel and tourism statistics:

  • 2024 final estimates are badged as ‘official statistics in development’ and estimates are subject to future change as further improvements to the methods are introduced. The ONS are not endorsing comparisons with previous years.
  • VisitBritain notes that the decline in visit numbers this data shows for the second half of 2024, compared to 2023, is in contrast to several other data sources that we have access to, which suggest moderate growth. In particular, there is a sharp decline in visits from Dover to Calais in the IPS data as well as a notable decline in lorry drivers surveyed. This is more likely to impact business visitors, those visiting from Eastern Europe and some Western European markets, and those visiting Southern and Central England. We have included trended data for transparency and completeness, but we urge caution when interpreting these estimates and advise users to note the ONS’ badging of the 2024 data as ‘official statistics in development’. The ONS have noted this and are investigating the survey design and admin data used for calibration to better to understand this (point 5 in the ONS update).
  • VisitBritain also notes the new incorporation of NISRA data into the UK estimates which is inconsistent with previous years (point 4 in the ONS update).
  • To allow for UK comparability to previous years, VisitBritain have included modelled estimates for the 2024 UK data at the annual and quarterly level. See the report for more information.
  • Whilst the IPS data collection method has been harmonised with the Civil Aviation Authority, the data has not yet been incorporated alongside the IPS data, with plans to do so by the Q3 2025 publication.

The ONS are also undertaking a review of the historical data, so previous years data may be subject to marginal change. See the latest IPS data publication and update on improvements to the travel and tourism statistics on the ONS website. 

For further information, refer to the About the IPS page.

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