Fall in visits by overseas residents

A DIP in the number of foreign nationals coming to see friends and relatives led to an overall fall of 1 per cent in overseas residents' visits to the UK last year.

Foreign residents made 29.61 million visits to the UK in 2010 compared with 29.9 million in 2009, the Office for National Statistics said.

The number of visits for holiday purposes rose 1 per cent to 11.57 million while business visits were up 3 per cent to 6.78 million. But visits to friends and relatives fell 5 per cent to 8.35 million, while those coming for miscellaneous reasons fell 6 per cent to 2.91 million.

Overall visits to the UK by North Americans last year fell 7 per cent to 3.33 million, while European visits were down 1 per cent at just under 22 million. Visits by residents from the rest of the world rose 2 per cent to 4.32 million.

The amount spent by foreign residents was about the same as the year before, at 16.67 billion.