UK suffers summer tourist slump
Visits to the UK during the summer peak declined by 4% with spending down 7% to £3.4 billion.
The July-September figures from the Office for National Statistics cover the period after the July 7 London terrorist bombings.
The number of visits to the UK in the three month period dropped to 7.4 million over the previous quarter.
The number of UK residents travelling abroad also dropped during the peak summer months by 1% to 16.4 million, with spending down 2% to £7.9 billion.
In the 12 months ending September the number of inbound travellers to the UK rose by 10% from 27.1 million to 29.9 million. Numbers from North America were down by 2% to 4.3 million, while visits from western Europe rose by 10% to 19.4 million and by 19% to 6.2 million from other parts of the world.
Trips abroad by UK residents over the 12 months rose by 4% from 63.3 million to 65.9 million. Visits to western Europe rose by 1% to 49.7 million, to North America by 9% to 5.1 million and to other parts of the world by 19% to 11.1 million.
Report by Phil Davies
Phil Davies
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