Tourism to UK falls annual 13 pct in Q1 2009

The number of foreign tourists visiting Britain in the first three months of this year was 13 percent lower than in 2008, and Britons made 19 percent fewer trips abroad, official data showed on Thursday.

Foreign residents made 6.28 million visits to Britain between January and March, down from 7.19 million last year, with the biggest decline in the number of visitors from North America and eastern Europe.

Despite anecdotal reports of European shoppers taking advantage of the strong euro to pick up bargains in Britain, there were 10 percent fewer visits from the European Union.

Overall, visitors spent 3.13 billion pounds ($4.73 billion), virtually unchanged from last year despite the fact that sterling has lost around a fifth of its value against major currencies over the period <=GBP>.

Britons spent 6.76 billion pounds on trips abroad, 13 percent less than last year, cutting visits to North America most sharply.