Overseas visits down for August, but underlying trend shows stability

The number of overseas visitors to the UK in August fell slightly on the same month in 2010, but spending increased.

At 3.1 million, visitor numbers are down by 2% on the 3.2 million visits in August 2010, and are well below the record August 2006, which saw 3.7 million visits.

Spend per head at £568 was a record high for August, just above last year's £564.

While the August figures are mixed, overall figures for visits and spend in 2011 are above 2010 levels by 3% and 4% respectively, due to earlier growth in the year.

Sandie Dawe, chief executive at VisitBritain, said the August 2011 figures show real signs of stability in what has been a strong 2011 to date.

"Visitor spending was at a record high for August," she said. "Following record levels in June and July, this has resulted in a 4% increase (£0.4b) in earnings so far in 2011, a total of £11.65b.

"Now as we are right in the mix of rolling out our biggest, most ambitious tourism marketing programme for 10 years we can see that Britain is recovering its international appeal with double digit holiday growth in the first quarter and promising figures during our peak summer months"

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By Janet Harmer

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