Tourism
Culture Media and Sport
Written answers and statements, 21 March 2007
Malcolm Moss (North East Cambridgeshire, Conservative)
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport which UK cities received the highest number of tourist visitors in each of the last 10 years.
Shaun Woodward (Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Media & Tourism), Department for Culture, Media & Sport; St Helens South, Labour)
Table 1 shows the UK cities with the highest number of visits by overseas residents from 2000 to 2005. Due to methodological changes to the International Passenger survey in 1999, comparisons with earlier years would be misleading, and are therefore not reported.
Table 2 shows the UK cities with the highest number of overnight visits by domestic residents for 2005-06 only, as data for previous years would involve disproportionate costs to obtain.
Information on domestic same day visits is not available at this level of detail.
| Table 1: Visits by overseas residents to the UK (all purposes of trip)—Top 5 towns 2000-05 | |
| Top Towns/Cities | Total visits( 1) (Thousand) |
| 2000 | |
| London | 13,150 |
| Edinburgh | 910 |
| Manchester | 560 |
| Birmingham | 520 |
| Glasgow | 430 |
| 2001 | |
| London | 11,450 |
| Edinburgh | 850 |
| Manchester | 550 |
| Birmingham | 450 |
| Glasgow | 400 |
| 2002 | |
| London | 11,600 |
| Edinburgh | 850 |
| Birmingham | 670 |
| Manchester | 590 |
| Glasgow | 400 |
| 2003 | |
| London | 11,700 |
| Edinburgh | 770 |
| Manchester | 740 |
| Birmingham | 720 |
| Glasgow | 420 |
| 2004 | |
| London | 13,390 |
| Edinburgh | 940 |
| Manchester | 770 |
| Birmingham | 730 |
| Glasgow | 540 |
| 2005 | |
| London | 13,893 |
| Edinburgh | 1,134 |
| Manchester | 824 |
| Birmingham | 728 |
| Glasgow | 684 |
| (1 )Excludes Day Visits Source: International Passenger Survey, ONS | |
| Table 2: Overnight visits by UK residents (all purposes of trip)—Top 5 towns May 2005-April 2006 | |
| Top Towns/Cities | Total visits (Thousand) |
| London | 10,434 |
| Manchester | 2,613 |
| Edinburgh | 2,237 |
| Birmingham | 2,075 |
| Glasgow | 1,964 |
| Source: United Kingdom Tourism Survey | |