We outline how many trips abroad people in the UK take and where Brits go on holiday. With a number of debit and credit cards that don’t charge for overseas transactions, you can also see how much Brits are spending abroad!
In 2024, Brits made 94.6 million trips overseas, up 10% from the 86.2 million visits made by Brits in 2023. This is also up from the number of visits made before the COVID-19 pandemic in 2019, which was 93.1 million.
| Year | Number of visits abroad by UK residents |
|---|---|
| 2019 | 93,086,000 |
| 2020 | 23,827,000 |
| 2021 | 19,142,000 |
| 2022 | 70,950,000 |
| 2023 | 86,205,000 |
| 2024 | 94,600,000 |
Spain is the most popular travel destination for Brits, with an estimated 17.8 million residents taking a trip here in 2024. It is followed by France, which had 9.3 million visitors from the UK in 2024, and Italy, which had 4.8 million visitors.
The top ten destinations for Brits are:
More than 3 in 4 visits abroad (77%) from the UK in 2024 were to Europe, making up 70.6 million trips. 4.7 million trips abroad were to North America, which made up 5% of trips.
Holidays were the most popular reason for travelling abroad in 2024, with 55.8 million holidays making up 61% of all trips abroad. 25.4 million visits were also made to friends and family overseas, while there were 7.8 million international business trips.
In 2024, UK residents spent an estimated £78.6 billion overseas compared to £72.4 billion in 2023 and only £58.4 billion in 2022. Most spending was done on holidays (69%), followed by visits to friends and family (17%) and business trips (10%).
Sophie Barber
Communications Manager
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