MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Recession-hit Britons cut back on overseas travel in 2009

Foreign visits to UK fell 6.3%, but London remained the most popular attraction

Recession-hit Britons cut back on overseas travel last year, with business trips down by almost a quarter, the UK Office for National Statistics announced this week.

Overseas visits fell by 15% in total to 58.6 million, the fastest rate of decline seen since the 1970s when foreign travel started to become a more regular feature of British life rather than a luxury.

The British economy contracted by 6.4% between the second quarter of 2008 and the third quarter of 2009 when a fragile recovery took hold.

A decline in the value of sterling against the dollar and the Euro would also have diluted demand for foreign travel when Britons were tightening their belts.

Visits to Britain by foreign residents fell by 6.3% to 29.9 million overall, with inbound business travel declining by 19%. However, earnings from visits to Britain edged up to £ 16 billion pounds from £ 16.3 billion.

London remained the most popular city for foreign visitors by a large margin, followed by the Scottish capital Edinburgh, Manchester, Birmingham and Glasgow.

British spending overseas fell to £ 31.7 billion pounds, a drop of 5.1 billion. Egypt, Jamaica and Lithuania bucked the negative trend, attracting more British tourists. Visits to Mexico dropped by 41%.

Most Britons head to European countries like France or Spain if they travel abroad, and the United States also remains a popular destination.