More Brits travelling abroad
UK residents made 24.1 million visits abroad in July to September last year, a rise of 7.4% over the same quarter in 2015.
Despite the drop in value of the pound against the euro, visits to Europe saw the largest increase, of 8.6% to 20 million.
Visits to ‘other countries’ also increased, by 6.1%, but visits to North America fell by 5.8% year-on-year.
The latest ONS figures showed holiday visits accounted for 17 million of the total, a jump of 7.4%.
Visits to friends or relatives showed the largest increase, up 11.7% in this quarter, while miscellaneous visits increased by 5.6%.
But business visits fell 4.1% during this quarter.
UK residents spent 282.5 million nights abroad, an increase of 5.1%.
The fall in visits to North America is reflected in the decrease in nights spent there by UK residents, which decreased by 7.5%.
Meanwhile the number of nights spent in Europe saw an increase of 8.6% compared with 2015.
Spend figures showed UK residents spent £15.9 billion during visits abroad, 10.2% up.
Expenditure in Europe rose by 10% while spending in North America fell by 2%, reflecting the decrease in visits to this region.
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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