New figures released recently state that the number of foreign visitors to Britain dropped during the peak summer season in addition to the amount of tourist spending. The number of foreign visitors came down by three percent, down to about 9.3 million, compared with the figures reported for the July - September period last year. In addition, overall visitor spending was down by two percent to £5.1 billion.

The figures reveal that for the first nine months of 2008, the country could not attract foreign visitors, says VisitBritain, the national tourism organisation. During the period, about 24.9 million overseas visitors travelled to Britain. There was no growth in the number of arrivals when compared to the same period in 2007. However, the total visitor-spend for the period was £12.5 billion, up by four per cent.

During the first nine months of the year, visitors from North America came down by nine percent down to 3.2 million. Analysts attribute this to the tough economic scenario in the US in addition to low consumer confidence and the rising cost of air travel. Until early summer months, the weakness of the dollar was a factor. However, Britain has not yet seen the benefits from the strengthening of the dollar against the pound, observes Visit Britain.

There were about 32.8 million visitor arrivals in 2007, which was only an increase of about 0.2 percent over 2006. Total tourist spending for 2007 was £16 billion, which was a decrease of 0.3 per cent over 2006.