103 London Tourism Statistics for 2026

How many tourists visit London each year?

The newest full-year count, for 2025, uses the survey method introduced in 2024, so it cannot be set against earlier years. On the older basis, visits were just below the pre-pandemic level by 2024, but spending had already passed it.

View data table

Inbound visits to London on one consistent survey basis, showing visits close to the 2019 level by 2024.

Period	Value
2019	21.7m
2023	20.3m
2024	20.9m

• In the second half of 2025, inbound spend in London was down 1% on the same period of 2024, while visits rose slightly. This is the only year-on-year comparison the current method supports. (VisitBritain, Oct 2026)
• On the earlier survey basis, London had 20.9 million inbound visits in 2024, up from 20.3 million in 2023. (GLA Economics, Feb 2026)
• Inbound spend reached £17.3 billion in 2024, above the 2019 level of £15.7 billion, even though the visit count stayed just below 2019's 21.7 million. (GLA Economics, Feb 2026)
• Across the whole UK, overseas residents made 40.8 million visits and spent £29.8 billion in 2025. (ONS, Oct 2026)

The 19.3m figure for 2025 is on the post-2024 method and is not comparable with the 2019 to 2024 figures, which use the earlier basis. The official statistics are described as in development.

Where do London's visitors come from?

The United States sends more visitors to London than any other country, and far more spending. France and Germany follow on visit numbers, but several smaller long-haul markets outspend them per trip.

1. 1 United States 3.75m
2. 2 France 2.04m
3. 3 Germany 1.57m
4. 4 Spain 1.43m
5. 5 Italy 1.17m
6. 6 Ireland 0.81m
7. 7 Netherlands 0.80m
8. 8 Australia 0.69m

• US visitors supplied about 27% of all London inbound spend in 2024 from around 18% of visits, the highest-value market by far. (GLA Economics, Feb 2026)
• France was second with 2.04 million visits and £1.15 billion of spend. (GLA Economics, Feb 2026)
• Germany was third, with 1.57 million visits and £914 million of spend. (GLA Economics, Feb 2026)
• Australia sent only 0.69 million visitors but £746 million of spend, more than higher-volume European markets. (GLA Economics, Feb 2026)
• Spain sent 1.43 million visits and £784 million of spend in 2024, and Italy 1.17 million visits and £637 million. (GLA Economics, Feb 2026)
• Countries outside London's ten largest markets together made 7.6 million visits and spent £7,439 million in 2024. (GLA Economics, Feb 2026)
• US residents also made the most visits to Great Britain of any country in 2025, at 5.5 million, ahead of France and Germany. (ONS, Oct 2026)

Why do people visit London, and how long do they stay?

Just over half of overseas visits to London are holidays, with visiting friends and relatives the next largest reason. The most recent full breakdown on a stable method is for 2019, so it is labelled as such.

• Holiday 51%
• Visiting friends/relatives 24%
• Business 18%
• Other 6%
• Study 1%

• In 2019, holidays were 51% of overseas visits to London, visiting friends and relatives 24%, business 18% and study 1%. (GLA / ONS, 2019)
• Business travel took a larger share of spend than of visits: 23% of spend from 18% of visits in 2019. (GLA / ONS, 2019)
• The average overseas visitor stayed 5.5 nights in London in 2019, for 118.9 million visitor nights in total. (GLA / ONS, 2019)
• Most trips were short: in 2019, 45% of overseas visits to London lasted 1 to 3 nights, 35% lasted 4 to 7 nights, 13% lasted 8 to 14 nights and 6% lasted 15 nights or more. (GLA / ONS, 2019)
• 61% of all inbound business spend in Great Britain took place in London in 2024, about £3.6 billion. (VisitBritain, 2026)

No comparable recent London purpose split is published since the survey method changed in 2024, so the 2019 figures are used and labelled.

How many British visitors does London get?

Londoners and other British residents make far more day trips to the capital than overnight stays. The domestic survey was redesigned in 2022, so these figures do not compare with pre-2019 data.

• There were 15.1 million domestic overnight trips to London in 2024, 17% of the England total. (GLA Economics, Feb 2026)
• On VisitBritain's 2025 top-towns data, Greater London had 15.8 million overnight trips and 181.6 million day visits. (VisitBritain, 2026)
• Only 24% of London's overnight tourism revenue in 2024 came from domestic visitors, so roughly three quarters came from overseas. (VisitBritain, Jan 2026)

What are London's most visited attractions?

London's free national museums fill most of the top of the UK rankings. The Natural History Museum reached the top for the first time in 2025, overtaking the British Museum.

1. 1 Natural History Museum 7.12m
2. 2 British Museum 6.44m
3. 3 Tate Modern 4.51m
4. 4 National Gallery 4.15m
5. 5 Southbank Centre 3.42m
6. 6 V&A South Kensington 3.33m
7. 7 Somerset House 2.90m
8. 8 Tower of London 2.82m
9. 9 Science Museum 2.64m
10. 10 Royal Museums Greenwich 2.36m

• Natural History Museum visits rose 13% in 2025, enough to lift it above the British Museum for the first time. (ALVA, Mar 2026)
• The British Museum had 6,440,120 visits, down 1%, in second place. (ALVA, Mar 2026)
• The National Gallery rose 29% to 4,147,544 visits after the Sainsbury Wing reopened. (ALVA, Mar 2026)
• The Tower of London was the UK's most visited paid attraction, with 2,817,852 visits. (ALVA, Mar 2026)
• Across 409 member sites, ALVA recorded 165 million visits in 2025, up 2% on 2024 but 7% below the 170 million of 2019. (ALVA, Mar 2026)
• 231 member sites reported at least 46.3 million visits from overseas visitors in 2025. (ALVA, Mar 2026)

How big is London's West End theatre?

The West End had a record year in 2025, the first time its box office passed £1 billion. It draws more people than the Premier League.

• West End box-office revenue rose 4.1% in 2025. (Society of London Theatre, Mar 2026)
• Attendances rose 3.16%, to a new record. (Society of London Theatre, Mar 2026)
• The West End drew more than 2 million more people than the entire Premier League, and nearly 3 million more than Broadway. (Society of London Theatre, Mar 2026)
• Real-terms ticket prices have fallen 8.9% since 2019, and more than a quarter of tickets sold below £35. (Society of London Theatre, Mar 2026)
• Average occupancy eased to 84% as more performances were staged. (Society of London Theatre, Mar 2026)
• More than 37 million people attended member theatres across the UK in 2025, above pre-pandemic levels. (Society of London Theatre, Mar 2026)

How many people go to London's big events?

London's set-piece events draw record crowds. Its marathon is now the largest in the world by finishers, and Wimbledon set an attendance record in 2025.

• A world-record 840,318 people applied in the ballot for a place in the 2025 race. (London Marathon Events, Apr 2025)
• Wimbledon had the largest attendance in its history in 2025, with 548,770 guests across the fortnight. (AELTC, Jul 2025)
• About 100,000 people attend the ticketed New Year's Eve fireworks on the South Bank. (Greater London Authority, Oct 2025)

How full are London's hotels, and what do they cost?

London hotels ran near or above 82% full in 2025. Measures differ by firm because each samples a different set of hotels, so we give each by name.

• One trading review put London occupancy at 82.5% in 2025, up 1.2 points on the year. (Knight Frank, 2026)
• A sample of 21 central full-service hotels showed 84% occupancy and an average daily rate of £278.9, both slightly down on the year. (Cushman & Wakefield, 2026)
• London hotels set a record in July 2025, with 88.6% occupancy and an average rate of £234.58 across the month. (CoStar, Aug 2025)
• The single busiest night was the Wimbledon women's final, at 94.7% occupancy. (CoStar, Aug 2025)
• About 2,300 rooms were added to central London in 2025, as 15 hotels opened and 4 closed. (Cushman & Wakefield, 2026)
• Across the same 21 central hotels, gross operating profit margins were 46.8% in 2025, up 0.2 points, even as revenue per available room fell 0.9%. (Cushman & Wakefield, 2026)

How do visitors arrive in London?

Most visitors fly in, through five airports led by Heathrow, which is roughly twice the size of Gatwick. Passenger numbers grew slightly in 2025, and Eurostar had a record year on the rail link from St Pancras.

1. 1 Heathrow 84.46m
2. 2 Gatwick 42.77m
3. 3 Stansted 29.76m
4. 4 Luton 17.77m
5. 5 London City 3.74m

• Gatwick handled 42.77 million, the only London airport to fall in 2025. (CAA, Mar 2026)
• Stansted handled 29.76 million, Luton 17.77 million and London City 3.74 million. (CAA, Mar 2026)
• Passenger numbers across the London area airports rose about 1% in 2025. (CAA, Mar 2026)
• Luton and London City grew fastest, each up about 5% on 2024. (CAA, Mar 2026)
• December 2025 was Heathrow's busiest December on record, with almost 7.2 million passengers. (Heathrow, Jan 2026)
• Across the whole UK, airports handled a record 302 million passengers in 2025, the first year above 300 million. (CAA, 2026)
• EU destinations were Heathrow's largest market, at 28.4 million passengers. (CAA, Mar 2026)
• Eurostar carried a record 20 million passengers across its network in 2025, including its London St Pancras routes. (Eurostar, Jan 2026)
• Eurostar passed 400 million passengers carried since its 1994 launch, a milestone marked at London St Pancras International. (Eurostar, Jan 2026)
• Heathrow's busiest day ever was 1 August 2025, with more than 270,000 passengers. (Heathrow, Jan 2026)

How do visitors get around London?

The Tube carries over 1.2 billion journeys a year and is back near pre-pandemic use. The Elizabeth line, open since 2022, is now one of the busiest railways in the country.

1. 1 Waterloo 74.5m
2. 2 King's Cross St Pancras 73.6m
3. 3 Tottenham Court Road 60.8m
4. 4 Victoria 60.2m
5. 5 Liverpool Street 60.1m
6. 6 Paddington 58.0m
7. 7 London Bridge 56.2m
8. 8 Oxford Circus 52.3m

• The Underground carried an estimated 1,216 million journeys in 2024/25, up 3%, back to 91% of the pre-pandemic level. (Transport for London, Dec 2025)
• London's buses carried 1,842 million journeys, more than the Tube, though bus use is in long-run decline. (Transport for London, Dec 2025)
• The Elizabeth line carried 231 million passengers in 2024/25, up 10.1%, about 800,000 a day. (Transport for London, Dec 2025)
• Waterloo was the busiest Tube station in 2025, with 74.5 million entries and exits, just ahead of King's Cross St Pancras on 73.6 million. (Transport for London, Jul 2026)
• Overall public transport use was back to 94% of its pre-pandemic level in 2024/25. (Transport for London, Dec 2025)
• The Elizabeth line has the highest passenger satisfaction of any TfL line. (Transport for London, Dec 2025)

What do visitors spend on shopping and eating out?

Shopping is the single largest thing overseas visitors spend on in Britain, ahead of eating out. London's West End is the centre of it, and the city has tens of thousands of places to eat and drink.

• Shopping 31%
• Restaurants and dining 26%
• Hotels and lodging 16%
• Food and grocery 9%
• Other 18%

• Shopping was the largest category of overseas visitor card spend in Britain in 2024, at 31%, ahead of restaurants and dining on 26%. (VisitBritain, Apr 2025)
• The West End shopping district turned over £9.3 billion in 2024, up from £3.9 billion after the pandemic. (New West End Company, Aug 2025)
• The West End expected shoppers to spend £1.7 billion over November and December 2025. (New West End Company, Oct 2025)
• London had 25,345 food and drink businesses, across 33,645 sites, in March 2024. (ONS, Apr 2025)
• Those included 7,295 licensed restaurants and 2,235 pubs and bars. (ONS, Apr 2025)
• Hospitality supported about 456,000 jobs in London in June 2025. (GLA Economics, Nov 2025)
• The West End's business group estimated it lost £310 million of sales in the first half of 2025 from the end of tax-free shopping. (New West End Company, Aug 2025)

The spend-category split is Britain-wide card data, not a London-only figure, and covers in-person card payments. The West End turnover figures are from the district's business group.

What is tourism worth to London?

Tourism is one of London's largest industries. Two official bodies measure its value on different bases, so both are given, not merged.

• About one in ten London jobs is linked to tourism, and the capital holds 26% of all UK tourism employment. (VisitBritain, Jan 2026)
• On a narrower direct basis, an earlier estimate put tourism's direct value at £6.6 billion and 226,000 jobs. (GLA Economics, 2012)
• Across the whole UK, tourism's economic impact was £147 billion in 2024, about 5% of the economy, supporting 2.4 million jobs. (VisitBritain, Jan 2026)

The £41.2 billion figure is total impact, including the supply chain, for 2024. The £6.6 billion figure is direct value from an older study. They measure different things and should not be added or compared.

How safe is London for visitors?

Recorded crime in London fell in the year to March 2026, and the theft most likely to affect visitors, pickpocketing and phone snatching, fell sharply. The figures count offences reported to the Metropolitan Police, which covers Greater London outside the Square Mile.

View data table

Theft from the person recorded in London, the offence most likely to affect visitors, fell sharply in the year to March 2026.

Period	Value
Year to Mar 2025	102,414
Year to Mar 2026	80,216

• Theft from the person, which covers pickpocketing and phone snatches, fell from 102,414 offences to 80,216 in the year to March 2026, about 22% lower. (Home Office, Oct 2026)
• Total recorded offences fell from 944,206 to 916,875 over the same period, about 3% lower. (Home Office, Oct 2026)
• Robbery of personal property fell from 27,006 offences to 23,454. (Home Office, Oct 2026)
• Knife crime fell 21.2% and homicide 6.5% in 2025/26, on the city's own figures. (Greater London Authority, Nov 2026)
• Across England and Wales theft from the person rose 15% in the year to March 2025, so London moved against the national trend. (ONS, Jul 2025)
• Homicides recorded in London fell from 109 to 98 in the year to March 2026. (Home Office, Oct 2026)

Figures are offences recorded by the Metropolitan Police, which excludes the City of London. Recorded crime counts offences reported to police, not every incident.

When is the best time to visit London?

London is a year-round city, so there is no wrong month, but the weather and the crowds shift through the year. July and August are warmest and busiest, winter is cool, grey and cheapest.

View data table

Average hours of sunshine in London by month, 1991 to 2020. Spring and summer are far sunnier than the winter.

Period	Value
Jan	61
Feb	79
Mar	124
Apr	177
May	207
Jun	208
Jul	218
Aug	202
Sep	157
Oct	115
Nov	71
Dec	55

• July is the warmest month, with an average daily high of 23.9°C, followed by August at 23.4°C; January and February are coldest. (Met Office, 1991–2020)
• London averages about 615mm of rain and 1,675 hours of sunshine a year; July is the sunniest month and December the dullest. (Met Office, 1991–2020)
• Rain falls through the year, not in one wet season: the wettest month, November at 67mm, gets less than twice the driest, March at 39mm. (Met Office, 1991–2020)
• Hotels were fullest in July 2025, at 92.7% occupancy, and emptiest in January, at 66.5%. (Cushman & Wakefield, 2026)
• Spring 2025 was unusually bright, with 252 hours of sunshine recorded in April alone. (Met Office, 2025)

When is London busiest, and what comes next?

London has little off-season. Its quietest quarter for overseas visitors is more than four fifths of its busiest, because city sightseeing does not depend on weather.

View data table

Domestic overnight tourism spend in London by quarter, 2024, showing the summer peak.

Period	Value
Q1	£844m
Q2	£1,335m
Q3	£1,666m
Q4	£1,611m

• Seaside counties are far more seasonal: Cornwall's least busy quarter for overseas visitors was just 11% of its busiest in 2023 to 2024. (VisitBritain, Jan 2026)
• Domestic overnight spend peaks in summer and troughs in winter, from £844 million in the first quarter of 2024 to £1,666 million in the third. (VisitBritain, Jan 2026)
• London is projected to reach 139 million international visitor nights a year by 2030. (GLA Economics, Feb 2026)
• VisitBritain forecasts 44.2 million inbound visits and £33.9 billion of spend across the whole UK in 2026. (VisitBritain, Aug 2026)

The 2026 forecast is a UK-wide figure; VisitBritain does not publish a separate London forecast. The nearest London outlook is the GLA 2030 projection.

Methodology and sources

Figures come from official statistics bodies, the organisations that run each measure, and the companies that publish their own traffic and box-office counts. Each figure links to the body that produced it, with the date. Where a survey changed method, which happened to the inbound survey in 2024 and the domestic survey in 2022, figures are not compared across the break. The page is reviewed monthly and the date is shown at the top.

• AELTC · Jul 2025
• ALVA · Mar 2026
• ALVA · Mar 2026
• CAA · Mar 2026
• CAA · Mar 2026
• CAA · 2026
• CAA · Mar 2026
• CoStar · Aug 2025
• Cushman & Wakefield · 2026
• Eurostar · Jan 2026
• GLA / ONS · 2019
• GLA Economics · Feb 2026
• GLA Economics · Nov 2025
• GLA Economics · 2012
• Greater London Authority · Oct 2025
• Greater London Authority · Nov 2026
• Heathrow · Jan 2026
• Home Office · Oct 2026
• Knight Frank · 2026
• London Marathon Events · Apr 2025
• Met Office · 1991–2020
• Met Office · 2025
• New West End Company · Aug 2025
• New West End Company · Oct 2025
• ONS · Oct 2026
• ONS · Apr 2025
• ONS · Jul 2025
• Society of London Theatre · Mar 2026
• Transport for London · Dec 2025
• Transport for London · Jul 2026
• VisitBritain · Oct 2026
• VisitBritain · Jan 2026
• VisitBritain · 2026
• VisitBritain · 2026
• VisitBritain · Apr 2025
• VisitBritain · Jan 2026
• VisitBritain · Aug 2026