Cynnwys
- Main points
- About the estimates
- Changes to overseas travel and tourism publications
- Main trends in figures and charts
- Trends in visits to the UK by overseas residents, non seasonally adjusted (dataset tables 1,2,5)
- Trends in visits abroad by UK residents, non seasonally adjusted (dataset tables 3,4,5)
- Other overseas travel and tourism releases
- Datasets definitions
- Exclusions
- Definitions
- Geographical areas
- Purpose groupings
- Sample methodology
- Accuracy of IPS estimates
- Important change in IPS sampling
- Changes to the IPS in 2009
- Special events
- Further statistics and other analyses
- Background notes
- Methodoleg
1. Main points
In the 3 months to April 2016, there were 7.9 million overseas residents' visits to the UK, up by 5% compared with the corresponding period a year earlier. Spending in the UK by visiting overseas residents decreased by 2% to £4.0 billion when compared with the same 3 months in 2015.
UK residents made 14.5 million visits abroad in the 3 months to April 2016, a 9% increase compared with the 3 months to April 2015.
Expenditure on visits abroad by UK residents in the 12 months to April 2016 increased by 15% to £40.2 billion when compared with the previous year.
Nôl i'r tabl cynnwys2. About the estimates
Overseas Travel and Tourism monthly estimates are revised during the processing of the quarterly dataset and again during the processing of the annual dataset. The most up-to-date and accurate estimates for all published months can be found in the latest edition of the Overseas Travel and Tourism monthly statistical bulletin.
Estimates contained in this bulletin are produced from responses provided by international passengers arriving in and departing from the UK, sampled on the International Passenger Survey that we conduct.
This bulletin contains provisional overseas travel and tourism estimates for April 2016. Revised, final estimates for 2015 were published in Travel Trends, 2015 on 20 May 2016. The monthly overseas travel and tourism estimates are produced using provisional passenger traffic data to inform the weighting process that is then revised for production of the quarterly estimates, and final data is then used in the production of the annual results published in Travel Trends (see background note: Accuracy of IPS estimates). The title of the monthly overseas travel and tourism bulletin was renamed in December 2013 to "Overseas Travel and Tourism, Provisional Results for [Month] 2013" to clarify that the data contained in these bulletins are provisional.
The sample profile and responses are calibrated to international passenger traffic for the reporting period.
Estimates are based on interviews conducted when passengers end their visit. Therefore any visits commencing in the reported month but not completed until later are not included in estimates for the reported month.
The reported spend for visits include any spending associated with the visit, which may occur before, during or after the trip. In January 2015 the methodology for treating outliers was improved. For further information please contact the IPS team. Parts of the bulletin refer to countries visited abroad. It should be noted that if a UK resident visited more than 1 country on a trip abroad, the country recorded as visited in this publication is the country that was visited for the longest period.
Estimates are subject to sampling error, and confidence intervals are provided to help readers interpret the estimates (see background note: Accuracy of IPS estimates). Further guidance is provided about the quality of overseas travel and tourism estimates.
Nôl i'r tabl cynnwys3. Changes to overseas travel and tourism publications
The overseas travel and tourism monthly and quarterly bulletins have been updated to provide additional information about the revisions policy used to revise and finalise the estimates. As part of this improvement to the publications, the titles have been changed to indicate that the estimates are provisional. The final estimates, for the overseas travel and tourism data, are published in the annual Travel Trends publication. The first publications to include the additional information are:
"Overseas Travel and Tourism, Provisional Results for October 2013" published on 12 December 2013
"Overseas Travel and Tourism, Provisional Results for Quarter 3, 2013" published on 16 January 2014
4. Main trends in figures and charts
Table 1: Main visit and spending estimates for overseas residents' visits to the UK in 2015 and 2016
Overseas residents' visits to UK | ||||
Visits (thousands) | % change from year earlier | Earnings (£ million) | % change from year earlier | |
Non seasonally adjusted | ||||
Apr 2016 | 3,060 | -3 | 1,600 | -0 |
Feb to Apr 2016 | 7,880 | +3 | 3,960 | -2 |
Year to date 2016 | 10,420 | +3 | 5,240 | -3 |
Latest 12 months | 36,430 | +5 | 21,910 | 0 |
Seasonally adjusted | ||||
November | 2,960 | +2 | 1,770 | -4 |
December | 3,010 | +7 | 1,890 | +3 |
January | 3,010 | +5 | 1,710 | -6 |
February | 3,030 | +5 | 1,730 | +1 |
March | 3,040 | +5 | 1,740 | -8 |
April | 2,950 | -3 | 1,810 | -1 |
Source: International Passenger Survey - Office for National Statistics |
Download this table Table 1: Main visit and spending estimates for overseas residents' visits to the UK in 2015 and 2016
.xls (28.2 kB)
Table 2: Main visit and spending estimates for UK residents' visits abroad in 2015 and 2016
UK residents' visits abroad | ||||
Visits (thousands) | % change from year earlier | Expenditure (£ million) | % change from year earlier | |
Non seasonally adjusted | ||||
Apr 2016 | 5,970 | +8 | 3,500 | +21 |
Feb to Apr 2016 | 14,460 | +9 | 8,640 | +15 |
Year to date 2016 | 18,640 | +8 | 11,090 | +12 |
Latest 12 months | 67,100 | +9 | 40,230 | +12 |
Seasonally adjusted | ||||
November | 5,430 | +7 | 3,460 | +18 |
December | 5,610 | +10 | 3,400 | +18 |
January | 5,380 | +2 | 3,130 | +2 |
February | 5,640 | +10 | 3,520 | +18 |
March | 5,600 | +3 | 3,450 | +4 |
April | 5,760 | +6 | 3,630 | +19 |
Source: International Passenger Survey - Office for National Statistics |
Download this table Table 2: Main visit and spending estimates for UK residents' visits abroad in 2015 and 2016
.xls (27.6 kB)
Figure 1: Overseas residents' visits to the UK and UK residents' visits abroad (seasonally adjusted)
April 2014 to April 2016
Source: International Passenger Survey (IPS) - Office for National Statistics
Download this chart Figure 1: Overseas residents' visits to the UK and UK residents' visits abroad (seasonally adjusted)
Image .csv .xls
Figure 2: Spending by overseas residents' in the UK and spending by UK residents overseas by month (seasonally adjusted)
April 2014 to April 2016
Source: International Passenger Survey (IPS) - Office for National Statistics
Download this chart Figure 2: Spending by overseas residents' in the UK and spending by UK residents overseas by month (seasonally adjusted)
Image .csv .xls5. Trends in visits to the UK by overseas residents, non seasonally adjusted (dataset tables 1,2,5)
The number of visits to the UK by overseas residents in April 2016 was 3.1 million, a decrease of 3% when compared with April 2015. Overseas residents spent £1.6 billion in the UK during these visits.
During the period February to April 2016, overseas residents’ visits to the UK rose by 3% compared with the corresponding period a year earlier but they spent 2% less during this period.
In the 12 months to April 2016, the number of visits to the UK was 5% higher than a year earlier, while the total amount spent by visitors was unchanged. Visits from North America and Europe (see "Background notes: Geographical areas") were up by 11% and 4% respectively and visits from Other Countries (countries other than Europe and North America) grew by 5%. Holiday visits grew 1%; business trips grew 6% and visits to friends or relatives by 8%.
Figure 3: Overseas residents' visits to the UK by month (seasonally adjusted)
April 2014 to April 2016
Source: International Passenger Survey (IPS) - Office for National Statistics
Download this chart Figure 3: Overseas residents' visits to the UK by month (seasonally adjusted)
Image .csv .xls6. Trends in visits abroad by UK residents, non seasonally adjusted (dataset tables 3,4,5)
The estimated number of visits abroad by UK residents in April 2016 was 6.0 million. UK residents spent £3.5 billion during visits abroad in April 2016.
During the period February to April 2016, UK residents’ visits abroad rose by 9% compared with the corresponding period a year earlier and they spent 15% more during this period.
In the 12 months to April 2016, the number of visits abroad by UK residents was 9% higher when compared with a year earlier; expenditure on these visits also increased, by 12%, during this period. Visits to all areas of the world rose: North America by 12%, Europe by 9% and Other Countries by 6%. Travelling abroad also grew across the range of reasons for visiting, including holidays (8%), business (10%), and visits to friends and relatives (9%).
Figure 4: UK residents' visits abroad by month (seasonally adjusted)
April 2014 to April 2016
Source: International Passenger Survey (IPS) - Office for National Statistics
Download this chart Figure 4: UK residents' visits abroad by month (seasonally adjusted)
Image .csv .xls7. Other overseas travel and tourism releases
More detailed analysis of overseas travel and tourism trends are provided in the publications:
Overseas Travel and Tourism Quarterly, the latest publication for Quarter 3 July to September 2015 was published on 21 January 2016 – this provides more detailed analysis of visits and spending, isolating aspects such as countries of visit, mode of travel used, nationality of visitors and regions of the UK visited; quarter 4 (October to December) figures can be found in Travel Trends 2015
Travel Trends, latest publication Travel Trends 2015 was published on 20 May 2016, the next publication (Travel Trends 2016) will be published in spring 2017 – this provides final overseas travel and tourism estimates and more detailed analysis of visits and spending, including analysis by demographics, towns visited in the UK and countries visited by residents of different parts of the UK
TravelPac is a dataset which allows you to conduct your own analyses of quarterly and annual data on main variables – the datasets are provided in SPSS and Excel
Note that estimates are subject to revision between the monthly statistical bulletin and the quarterly publication and again when Travel Trends is published. Revisions result from more accurate passenger figures being made available. More information about the IPS revisions policy is available in the Quality and Methodology Information report. The most up-to-date and accurate estimates for all published months can be found in the latest edition of the Overseas Travel and Tourism monthly statistical bulletin.
Note that, although data by the International Passenger Survey (IPS) feed into the calculation of migration statistics, the Overseas Travel and Tourism publications do not provide any information relating to international migration.
Nôl i'r tabl cynnwys