VisitBritain

About the International Passenger 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.

Find out about the research approach used for the survey, the frequency of releases and how this data is used to help us understand more about visitors to Britain.

About the survey

Data is published regularly by ONS on a monthly, quarterly and annual basis. Anonymous face-to-face interviews are undertaken with a random sample of passengers as they enter or leave the UK. Approximately 95 per cent of passengers entering and leaving the UK have a chance of being sampled on the survey.

VisitBritain analyse the data by overseas markets, UK regions and UK towns. You can explore the data by quarter and year via the interactive visualisations at the UK total level and by region.

Each year VisitBritain sponsors questions on the International Passenger Survey to understand more about visitors to the UK. Find out what questions we have sponsored and are sponsoring in the future.

If you would like more information on the survey, please view our frequently asked questions, download our guide on IPS Methodology to understand how the survey is administered and how national estimates are produced from the sample and take a look at how world regions and countries are defined.

Alternatively, further details about the survey can be found on the ONS website.

If you are looking for information about inbound tourism to countries other than the UK, possible sources include the United Nations World Tourism Organisation and, particularly for European data, TourMIS.

IPS Revisions

IPS estimates are subject to both planned and unplanned revisions. Planned revisions are carried out on the IPS data as updated passenger information is made available and statistical benchmarking is applied. The annual data contains all revisions and is considered the final data.

One such planned revision occurred in May 2020 to address an observed imbalance between the IPS estimates for the number of visitors between the departures and arrivals within the IPS for different nationalities. A new adjustment method which updated the weightings applied during survey processing was developed by the ONS and the Social Statistics department of the University of Southampton.

The ONS retrospectively applied a new adjustment method and revised all inbound (and outbound) tourism data from 2009 to 2018 and it will continue to apply this adjustment method to all future data releases. Data was significantly revised for some countries of residence, and to some degree for all countries; the total volume/value of tourism has also been revised upwards.

We have summarised some key changes in a What’s Changed document. Published 8 July 2020.

More information is available from the ONS or by contacting research@visitbritain.org.

Impact of COVID-19 on IPS data

The travel and tourism statistics published by The Office for National Statistics (ONS) are usually based on the results of the International Passenger Survey (IPS), but the survey was suspended on 16 March 2020 because of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. No IPS data was collected for the period when the survey is not operational. The figures published on the VisitBritain website for 2020 (with the exception of Q1 2020 – when the IPS was in operation), are based on administrative sources and modelling. The statistics have been produced to the highest quality possible, but the methods used have not been subject to full review and scrutiny. Assumptions that some previous trends have continued have been made. The results should therefore be viewed with caution. Please see the ONS 2020 data release for more info.

In 2021, ONS restarted surveying at most ports from the beginning of the year but were only able to interview at Dover from Q3. They were also unable to restart interviewing at Eurotunnel (Le Shuttle) for 2021 and the first half of 2022. However, Eurotunnel data has been modelled and added to the data from Q4 2021 to Q2 2022. The ONS restarted IPS interviews at all ports from July 2022.

In addition, no estimates are included for any travel across the Irish border from 2021 onwards. More information on UK leisure and tourism is available from the ONS.

Travel & Tourism Reform Project

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) published their final report of the travel and tourism review in May 2022. The approach proposes using alternative data sources, faster indicators of travel and tourism activity, a departures only passenger survey which is harmonised with existing passenger surveys and a household survey that collects data for UK residents. 

The latest project updates for the Travel & Tourism Reform Project are:

  • Harmonising with the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) - From 1 July 2024, the IPS and the CAA passenger survey will be harmonised; this means that changes will be made to the way the IPS data is collected. This includes moving to a gate room model and collecting data from departing passengers only. Harmonising the IPS survey with the CAA survey will provide more consistent data and will increase the sample size collected of foreign residents departing the UK.
  • Harmonising with the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency (NISRA) - From 1 April 2024, ONS will be harmonising with NISRA travel and tourism statistics. This means ONS will be stopping the IPS data collection in Northern Ireland and replacing it with data from NISRA. Harmonising with NISRA will ensure consistency between the estimates of visits to Northern Ireland measured by NISRA, compared with the estimates produced for the UK by the ONS.
  • Improved methods for outbound tourism - From 1 July 2024, international travel and tourism data for UK residents will no longer be collected on arrival at airports or ports. Instead, the data will be collected via the Great Britain Tourism Survey (GBTS) and the Great Britain Day Visits Survey (GBDVS). These surveys are online household surveys owned by VisitEngland, VisitScotland and Visit Wales. ONS have added questions regarding international travel to the surveys since January 2024. This follows a successful pilot where questions were added from October to December 2023.

See the full May 2022 report on the ONS website and subscribe to their newsletter to keep up to date with the latest on the Travel & Tourism Reform Project.

Further supporting documents

The Office for National Statistics release International Passenger Survey data according to a published release calendar. More information is available from the ONS.

In 2021 and into 2022 the Office for National Statistics, who are responsible for the International Passenger Survey, conducted a review of travel and tourism statistics. The report is available from the ONS.

Complementary to the ONS review of the IPS mentioned above, VisitBritain commissioned a report from Surrey University to look at the way other countries measure their inbound tourism – arrivals and expenditure. The Landscape of Inbound Tourism Measurement report explores the methodology used in each country including data sources and reporting frequency. Twelve countries were selected for the report including France, Austria, New Zealand, Ireland and Saudi Arabia.