London tops UK foreign trips list - but Manchester and Birmingham catching up

Britain's big industrial towns are gaining ground on London as tourist magnets for overseas visitors, according to a survey today.

The capital tops the list of cities most visited by foreigners, with Edinburgh in second place, but Manchester, Birmingham and Glasgow are also proving popular destinations according to figures today from VisitBritain.

The statistics, based on average annual figures for city visits from 2006 to last year, show that London receives just under 15 million overnight-stay trips from overseas visitors a year.

Edinburgh has 1.3 million, Manchester just under 900,000, Birmingham 737,000 and Glasgow 687,000.

London was again top for holidays, with an annual average of 6.65 million overnight visits, followed by Edinburgh with 771,000, Glasgow with 312,000, Inverness with 180,000 and Liverpool with 162,000.

For business trips, London is top with 3.2 million visits, followed by Birmingham with 380,000 and Manchester with 338,000.

VisitBritain also published a who-goes-where guide to British cities, which showed:

The London market is dominated by Americans, French and Germans, with the Germans also favouring Southampton, Canterbury and Brighton;

Plymouth attracts more visits from the French than from any other nation, while the US is Bath's biggest market;

Birmingham's biggest market is Ireland, followed by Poland;

French and Irish visitors are the most frequent in Cardiff and Swansea.

VisitBritain strategy and communications director Patricia Yates said: "This survey confirms an astonishing transformation of our industrial heartlands has taken place. They have become dynamic, stylish international destinations that are increasingly beloved of foreign visitors.

"Manchester has become the home of Brit cool, Birmingham wows people with its world-class cultural scene, Liverpool pulsates as the home of the Beatles and Liverpool football club, and Glasgow with its unique architecture, countryside and coastal views has become Scotland's style capital."

VisitBritain based its figures on Office for National Statistics' international passenger survey figures in which 200,000 travellers were questioned between 2006 and 2009.