1. Inbound markets & segments
  2. Segments
  3. Visiting friends & relatives

Visiting friends & relatives

Visiting friends and relations (VFR) is a very resilient segment of the inbound visitor economy over recent years, with those travelling to the UK to see friends and relatives participating in many activities more traditionally associated with holiday visitors.

Visiting friends and relatives by market

The latest quarterly data from the International Passenger Survey is available below. View data for visits, nights, and spend as well as filter visits by age, gender, season, mode of transport, length of stay. We also have latest quarterly data available for the whole of the UK, for the nations and regions of Britain and trend data by area, where you can filter by journey purpose.

In 2021, VisitBritain undertook research into UK expats living in the UAE. Three quarters of UK expats who visit from the UAE come to visit friends and family. Find out more about this lucrative audience and their visitation attitudes and behaviours (PDF, 10MB). Also see pen portraits of the two Expat personas; Reluctant Returners (PDF, 343KB) and Valiant Visitors (PDF, 385KB). 

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

Number of visits

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Total expenditure (GBP)

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Total nights spent

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Average length of stay (Nights)

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Average spend per visit (GBP)

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