About the International Passenger Survey

The International Passenger Survey is run by the Office for National Statistics.  Further details about the survey can be found on their website, but the documents below should be able to answer the majority of your questions about how the survey is run and what it can tell us.

If you are looking for information about inbound tourism to countries other than the UK, possible sources include the United Nations World Tourism Organisation and, particularly for European data, Tourmis.

Excel File

Publication release dates Go

See publication dates for releases of monthly, quarterly and annual data.

PDF

IPS Methodology Go

Understand how the survey is administered and how national estimates are produced from the sample.

PDF

Frequently Asked Questions Go

This document lists the most frequently asked questions on the IPS and aims to give an answer to these questions.  Find out about the methodology, management of the survey, timing of results, accuracy of results for different sample sizes, purpose of visit definitions, and issues with regional data.
Excel File

How World Regions and Countries are defined Go

This document lists which countries make up each world region on the IPS data. It also shows which countries are grouped under 'other' categories.
Excel File

VisitBritain's Sponsored Questions Go

Each year VisitBritain sponsors questions on the International Passenger Survey to understand more about visitors to the UK.  Find out what questions VisitBritain has sponsored and is sponsoring in the future here.  To find how visitors responded to these questions, go to the More about visitors to the UK page.