London welcomed more than 16 million international visitors for the first time within a year in 2013, new statistics have found.
The latest Office of National Statistics (ONS) International Passenger Survey found the 16.8m overseas visitors spent a record GBP11.2 billion on hotels, shopping, restaurants and attractions in 2013, GBP1 billion more than in 2012.
The IPS previously said London’s best year was 2006 when the city welcomed 15.6 million visitors.
The Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, said: “These record-breaking figures are a tribute to the outstanding mix of culture, art, music and sport to be found here and more is planned. With major international sporting events including the Rugby World Cup and the Tour de France and spectacular exhibitions at the Tate and the British Museum this year, it is clear that this wonderful city will not rest on its laurels.”
The capital’s positivity was reflected across Britain, which saw a 6% increase in visitors at 33m compared to 2012. Spend was up 13% to GBP21 billion, with the trends expected to continue this year.
Visits and spend were up across all nations with the rest of England seeing 13.6m visits; Scotland registering 2.4m and Wales seeing 900,000.
Christopher Rodrigues, chairman of VisitBritain commented on the strong results: “We are delighted with these final results for the key post-Olympic year. Every single nation across Britain has seen an uplift in visitor numbers and, even more importantly, there have been substantial increases in spending for one of Britain’s largest export industries. VisitBritain encourages visitors to explore all our nations and regions so I am particularly pleased that spending growth across the Rest of England (outside of London) and Scotland is faster than for London, which itself had a record breaking year.”
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