Grey tourism on the increase

The growth in "grey tourism" in the UK is set to continue, with more and more senior citizens visiting from abroad.

Last year, as many as 5.4 million over-55s came to Britain from overseas - almost one in five of the total visitor numbers.

This compared with a ratio of one in eight in 1993.

The biggest share of the current "grey tourism" market is British ex-pats, followed by Americans.

VisitBritain said its research showed that generally over-55s had a more positive perception of Britain than younger people and they ranked the UK third on the list of countries they would visit if money was no object.