Inbound town data
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.
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. 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.
Please visit the dedicated pages for national, regional and county data or detailed market information.
Top towns for 'staying visits' by inbound visitors
| 2019 | 2018 | 2017 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Town/city | Visits (000s) | Town/city | Visits (000s) | Town/city | Visits (000s) | |
| 1 | London | 21,713 | London | 21,072 | London | 21,708 |
| 2 | Edinburgh | 2,206 | Edinburgh | 2,515 | Edinburgh | 2,194 |
| 3 | Manchester | 1,661 | Manchester | 1,548 | Manchester | 1,432 |
| 4 | Birmingham | 1,112 | Birmingham | 1,119 | Birmingham | 1,109 |
| 5 | Liverpool | 845 | Glasgow | 882 | Glasgow | 855 |
| 6 | Glasgow | 771 | Liverpool | 824 | Liverpool | 836 |
| 7 | Brighton/Hove | 647 | Bristol | 615 | Bristol | 604 |
| 8 | Bristol | 636 | Oxford | 580 | Oxford | 601 |
| 9 | Oxford | 581 | Cambridge | 576 | Cambridge | 572 |
| 10 | Cambridge | 462 | Brighton/Hove | 478 | Brighton/Hove | 509 |
| 11 | Bath | 401 | Cardiff | 376 | Cardiff | 400 |
| 12 | Cardiff | 382 | Bath | 375 | Bath | 392 |
| 13 | Leeds | 338 | Leeds | 352 | York | 345 |
| 14 | York | 297 | Inverness | 322 | Inverness | 320 |
| 15 | Newcastle-upon-Tyne | 282 | York | 315 | Leeds | 304 |
| 16 | Inverness | 275 | Aberdeen | 244 | Newcastle-upon-Tyne | 294 |
| 17 | Stratford-upon-Avon | 271 | Nottingham | 236 | Aberdeen | 281 |
| 18 | Nottingham | 245 | Reading | 229 | Nottingham | 262 |
| 19 | Coventry | 245 | Newcastle-upon-Tyne | 226 | Windsor | 246 |
| 20 | Reading | 237 | Leicester | 218 | Reading | 239 |
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.
Download an excel table showing the 20 most visited towns and cities by visitors from overseas (XLS, 26.5KB) as far back as 1999.
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 2009-2019 (XLS, 13.6MB). 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 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.
Related resources
- Discover how to encourage visitors from emerging markets to explore more of Britain (PDF, 2.45MB). Published October 2014
- Investigate the types of area within Britain that potential visitors would like to visit (PDF, 1.51MB), based on results from the 2013 Anholt GfK Nations Brand Index Survey. Published February 2014
- Take a look at our analysis on the regional spread of inbound tourism (PDF, 1.83MB). Published August 2020
- Find out what attracts visitors to go beyond London (PDF, 902KB) and potential barriers to doing so. Published July 2013
- Data is also available for nations, regions and counties, as well as trends by market for the whole of the UK.
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Discover England Fund
- As part of the leisure activities research, the fund has produced a series of market and activities summaries. These summaries provide information about demographic profiles, attitude towards taking a holiday to England, market consideration for each activity and other market profiling insights.
- There are 2 reports that relate to destinations within Britain - London & Major cities (PDF, 1.9MB) and Smaller cities & Towns (PDF, 2.9MB). Published March 2018
