We analysed the most recent outbound tourism statistics to get some insight into the travel industry as it stands today. Read on to see how many trips abroad people in the UK take and where Brits go on holiday. With a number of credit cards that don’t charge for overseas transactions, you can also see how much Brits are spending abroad!
Outbound tourism statistics: Highlights
Spain is the most popular travel destination for Brits, with 17.8 million trips made in 2023.
France, Italy, Greece and Portugal make up the rest of the top 5 travel destinations for Brits – all of the top 5 are in Europe.
The USA is the top travel destination for Brits outside of Europe, with 3.9 million visits in 2023.
UK residents made a total of 86.2 million trips abroad in 2023, up from 71.8 million in 2022.
Holidays were the top reason for Brits travelling abroad, with 55.5 million holidays taken in 2023.
In 2023, UK residents spent an estimated £72.4 billion overseas.
How many Brits travel abroad each year?
In 2023, Brits made 86.2 million trips overseas, up 21% from the 71.8 million visits made by Brits in 2022. This is still slightly less than the peak number of visits made before the COVID-19 pandemic in 2019, which was 93.1 million.
Spain is the most popular travel destination for Brits, with an estimated 17.8 million residents taking a trip here in 2023. It is followed by France, which had 9.2 million visitors from the UK in 2023, and Italy, which had 4.9 million visitors from the UK in 2023. Italy has overtaken Greece in popularity since 2022.
The top ten destinations for Brits are:
1. Spain: 17.8 million visitors 2. France: 9.2 million visitors 3. Italy: 4.9 million visitors 4. Greece: 4.1 million visitors 5. Portugal: 4 million visitors 6. USA: 3.9 million visitors 7. Rep. of Ireland: 3.4 million visitors 8. Turkey: 3.2 million visitors 9. Poland: 2.8 million visitors 10. Netherlands: 2.7 million visitors
More than 3 in 4 visits abroad (77%) from the UK in 2023 were to Europe, making up 66.7 million trips. 4.5 million trips abroad were to North America, which made up 5% of trips.
Share your opinions to win prizes or earn cash!
Share your opinions to win!
Sign up to receive deals and tips, plus opportunities to win prizes for your opinions and experiences! (T&Cs)
Holidays were the most popular reason for travelling abroad in 2023, with 55.5 million holidays making up 64% of all trips abroad. 22.5 million visits were also made to friends and family overseas, while there were 6.3 million international business trips.
In 2023, UK residents spent an estimated £72.4 billion overseas compared to only £58.4 billion in 2022. Most spending was done on holidays (70%), followed by visits to friends and family (20%) and business trips (8%). Around 2% of total spending abroad came from trips with miscellaneous purposes.
Click here for more research. For all media enquiries, please contact –
Matt Mckenna
UK Head of Communications T: +44 20 8191 8806
Hide
Share your opinions to win prizes or earn cash!
Share your opinions to win!
Sign up to receive deals and tips, plus opportunities to win prizes for your opinions and experiences! (T&Cs)
Emily Herring is a Publisher at Finder specialising in credit-based products including credit cards and business and personal loans. Emily has recently joined the Investments team. She has a Masters in Creative Writing & Publishing and a Bachelor of Arts in Communication & Media. See full bio
Emily's expertise
Emily has written 148 Finder guides across topics including:
Sophie Barber is a content marketing manager for Finder in the UK after previously working as a content manager at a digital marketing agency. She has over 5 years experience in writing and publishing clear, concise and informative online articles for a variety of websites. See full bio
Sophie's expertise
Sophie has written 84 Finder guides across topics including:
Use our calculator to find out how long it would take to clear your credit card balance by making the minimum required payments vs paying a fixed amount each month.
The Yonder credit card has launched in the UK, using open banking to create a personalised picture of your spending habits to help you get the most out of your credit card.
Get all the details on how we rate the credit cards we review. We look at costs, fees, features and how well a card performs compared to the rest of the market.
Buy now and pay interest later with a 0% purchase credit card. Compare current offers with 0% p.a. on purchases.
How likely would you be to recommend Finder to a friend or colleague?
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
Very UnlikelyExtremely Likely
Required
Thank you for your feedback.
Our goal is to create the best possible product, and your thoughts, ideas and suggestions play a major role in helping us identify opportunities to improve.
Advertiser disclosure
Finder.com is an independent comparison platform and information service that aims to provide you with the tools you need to make better decisions. While we are independent, the offers that appear on this site are from companies from which Finder receives compensation. We may receive compensation from our partners for placement of their products or services. We may also receive compensation if you click on certain links posted on our site. While compensation arrangements may affect the order, position or placement of product information, it doesn't influence our assessment of those products. Please don't interpret the order in which products appear on our Site as any endorsement or recommendation from us. Finder compares a wide range of products, providers and services but we don't provide information on all available products, providers or services. Please appreciate that there may be other options available to you than the products, providers or services covered by our service.
We update our data regularly, but information can change between updates. Confirm details with the provider you're interested in before making a decision.
