Provisional estimates show that the number of visits to and from the UK continued to grow in 2005.
Visits abroad by UK residents rose by 3 per cent during the 12 months ending December 2005, from 64.2 million to a record 66.3 million. Over this period, visits to Western Europe rose 1 per cent (to 50.0 million), to North America by 3 per cent (to 4.9 million) and to other parts of the world by 16 per cent (to 11.3 million). Visits to North America are still below their 2000 level, while visits to Western Europe and other parts of the world are record numbers.
In the same 12-month period, visits by overseas residents to the UK rose by 8 per cent, from 27.8 million to 30.0 million. Although visits from residents of North America showed a decrease of 3 per cent (to 4.2 million), there were increases in the number of visits from residents of Western Europe of 8 per cent (to 19.3 million), and from other parts of the world of 18 per cent (to 6.4 million). This represents record numbers to the UK from Western Europe and other areas of the world.
During October to December 2005, the number of visits overseas by UK residents remained broadly the same at 16.5 million, while the associated spending increased by 1 per cent to £8.0 billion.
Over the same period, there were 7.5 million visits to the UK by overseas residents - an increase of 3 per cent when compared with the previous three months. Spending increased by 10 per cent to £3.7 billion.
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