Inbound visitor statistics for July 2019

Visits and spend figures

• Visits: The UK received just short of 4.0 million overseas visits in July 2019, up 2% year-on-year (YoY) and just 2% behind the July 2017 record. With both June and July up YoY, overseas visits in the last 3 months were 1% ahead of those in May - July 2018 with 10.8 million visits. However, as previous months' results were more mixed, year-to-date and 12-month rolling results to July 2019 were on par with those months a year ago, with inbound visits to the UK reaching 21.8 million in the first seven months of 2019, and 37.9 million visits from August 2018 to July 2019.
• Spending: In July 2019, inbound visitors spent £2.9 billion, up 17% on July 2018 although behind the 2017 record. It was the second month in a row showing double-figure YoY growth. Thanks to those strong results, inbound spending in May - July 2019 was 10% up on May - July 2018, and January - July 2019 was up 1% YoY to £13.1 billion. Overall though, overseas visitors spent £23.1 billion in the UK in the twelve months to July 2019, down 2% compared to the previous twelve-month period.

Visits by journey purpose

• Holiday visits reached a new record in June 2019, but there were 3% fewer visits in July 2019 compared to July 2018, with 1.8 million, and visits in the last three months were just behind May - July 2018 with 4.7 million. With positive YoY results in 5 out of 7 months so far in 2019, the 8.8 million holiday visits made between January and July 2019 were up 2% on the same months in 2018. With only 3 months out of 12 in the red between August 2018 and July 2019, holiday visits were still up 4% compared to the previous 12-month period, reaching a total 15.3 million holiday visits.
• Visits to friends and relatives (VFR) in July 2019 were 10% up on those in July 2018, at 1.2 million, and up 1% in the past 3 months with 3.1 million. With VFR visits posting YoY declines in five of the first seven months of 2019, inbound VFR visits reached 6.6 million visits between January and July 2019, down 3% on January - July 2018. Visits were also down 3% YoY over the latest rolling twelve months, to 11.6 million visits.
• Business visits were back in the red in July 2019, with 4% fewer visits than in July 2018, with 670,000 visits. Business visits from the beginning of the year add up to 4.9 million visits, just 1% below January - July 2018. Overall, there were 8.4 million business visits from overseas to the UK in the twelve months to July 2019, on par with August 2017 - July 2018.
• Miscellaneous journey purpose visits are a combination of a wide range of different journey purposes, including (but not limited to) short term study, looking for work, shopping, attending a sports event and many more. Compared to other journey purpose categories, miscellaneous visits represent a smaller proportion of inbound UK visits and results do tend to fluctuate. Visits in May - July were 6% ahead of 2018, but down 4% YoY over the rolling twelve months to July 2019.

Visits by global region

• Visits from all EU markets were down 2% YoY in July 2019 to 2.2 million, after an increase in June 2019. The latest three months were down 4%, year to date down 2%, and the latest rolling year down 1% YoY to 24.5 million visits to the UK.
  • Within this, visits from the EU15 markets followed this trend with July 2019 down 2% YoY to 1.8 million visits, May - July 2019 visits were down 4% YoY, and August 2018 - July 2019 down 2% to 19.5 million.
  • Visits from Other EU were down 5% YoY in July 2019 and in May - July. With growth in Jan - March, 2019 so far is still up 3% YoY, to a record 2.9 million visits. Visits in the 12 months to July were up 2% to about 5.0 million.
• Visits to the UK from the Rest of Europe were up 17% YoY in July 2019, and up 15% YoY in May - July 2019. With 4 out of the first 7 months of 2019 showing YoY increases, visits from the Rest of Europe were up 7% on January - July 2018. The latest rolling year is 1% up on August 2017 - July 2018 with 2.3 million visits overall.
• Visits from North America were up 2% YoY in July 2019 to 710,000 - a new record for any month. They also set new records for the May - July period with 2.0 million visits, and January - July with 3.1 million visits. Finally, there were 5.0 million visits in the twelve months to July 2019, matching the record for any 12-month results set last month.
• 'Rest of World' markets saw a 10% increase YoY in visits in July 2019 with 830,000 visits, and May - July up 3%. However, with 5 out of 7 months down YoY in 2019, visits from those markets were still 3% down on January - July 2018. Overall, there were 6.1 million visits from those markets to the UK in the 12-month period to July 2019, down 2% YoY.