More about visitors

Each year VisitBritain sponsors questions on the International Passenger Survey to understand more about visitors from overseas.  Below you will find reports giving information about first-time and repeat visitors, transport used within the UK, who visitors are travelling with, how far in advance they decide on visiting the UK, and who visits the UK as part of a multi-country trip.

If you are interested in information about visitors from a particular market, we recommend taking a look at our Market Profiles, where you can find a comprehensive summary on visitors from each market.

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Booking methods (xls) Go

Find out how many visitors from overseas booked their trip and accommodation directly or via a travel agent in 2012. Also see how many booked online compared to via the phone or face to face.  Analyse data by country of residence, age and purpose of visit.

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Purchasing behaviour (xls) Go

Find out how many visitors from overseas bought items such as train tickets and theatre tickets both ahead of their visit and whilst in the UK in 2012.  Analyse data by country of residence, age, gender, purpose of visit, season, and length of stay.

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First-time and repeat visitors (pdf) Go

Find out which markets have the highest proportions of first-time and repeat visitors, based on data from 2009. This analysis is in the second half of the article.

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Decision to Travel 'Lead-time' (pdf) Go

Find out when visitors make the decision to come to the UK in relation to when they actually come.  This subject was also discussed in-depth in the October 2006 edition of Foresight

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Transport Used Within the UK (pdf) Go

Find out what forms of transport visitors used when they came to the UK.

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Travel companions (xls) Go

Find out who visitors travel with when they come to the UK. View data for 2010 showing how many people travel alone, with their spouse, children or others. View differences by market, journey purpose and age group and more.

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Travel group size (xls) Go

Find out how many others visitors travel with when they come to the UK. View data for 2011 showing how many people travel alone, with one other person, or in larger groups. View differences by market, journey purpose and age group.

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States of Residence (xls) Go

Find out where in their own country visitors from overseas live in.  Data is available from 2006-2011 for certain countries including the USA, Canada, Germany, France, Spain, Italy, the Netherlands, Ireland, Poland, India, United Arab Emirates, Japan and more.

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Visiting the UK as Part of a Multi-Country Trip (pdf) Go

The January 2009 edition of Foresight profiled visitors from overseas who combine their trip to the UK with with time spent in other countries.

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Household income (xls) Go

See the distribution of household income bands amongst visitors from major markets in 2011 – breakdown further by journey purpose, age and number of people in household.

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Visitors with a medical condition (pdf) Go

An overview of visitors who report having a medical impairment or condition can be found in the second section of this Foresight report from October 2011