More Brits going abroad, but trips to North America down
The number of UK residents going abroad was up 8% for the first three months of this year, although visits to North America fell by 4%.
These visitors spent £8.6 billion during visits abroad in January to March this year, 11.7% more than during the same period of 2016.
Spend in Europe rose by 10% but fell 1.5% in North America.
According to the ONS, Brits made 14.1 million visits abroad in January to March this year.
Visits to Europe were up by 7.8% but visits to ‘other countries’ – outside Europe and North America – saw the largest rise of 12.4%.
Holiday visits continued to be the most common reason for visits abroad – 7.6 million holidays, representing a 5.6% jump.
Visits to friends or relatives rose by 13.4% in this quarter, miscellaneous visits also increased by 13.4%, and business visits were up by 6%.
UK residents spent 147 million nights abroad, an increase of 9.1%, and the number of nights spent in North America was up 11.6%.
Bev
Editor in chief Bev Fearis has been a travel journalist for 25 years. She started her career at Travel Weekly, where she became deputy news editor, before joining Business Traveller as deputy editor and launching the magazine’s website. She has also written travel features, news and expert comment for the Guardian, Observer, Times, Telegraph, Boundless and other consumer titles and was named one of the top 50 UK travel journalists by the Press Gazette.
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