British passion for travel is "biggest in 20 years"

Barcelona in Spain, which remains the most visited country by Britons

Britain’s passion for travel abroad has experienced its biggest surge in nearly 20 years, with Britons making more than 65 million trips to foreign countries in 2015.

New figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) show that visits overseas by British residents increased by 9.4 per cent on 2014, the largest rise since 1998. British travellers also spent the most money abroad ever, at £39billion.

Spain and France remain the most popular destinations for Britons, with the number of visits to the former increasing by 22 per cent from 10.7 million in 2011 to 13 million last year. The number of visits to France, however, fell from 8.9 million to 8.8 million. Italy, Ireland and the US completed the top five.

The statistics include holidays, visiting friends or relatives, business and miscellaneous, but data shows that holidays were the most popular reasons, accounting for 68 per cent of visits in England, 71 per cent in Scotland and 75 per cent in Wales. ABTA, the UK’s travel industry body, said the figures show the UK public's strong appetite for travel.

“These figures demonstrate the resilience of UK travelers, and show the vital economic importance of travel to the UK economy,” the spokesperson said.

“The 9.4 per cent growth recorded in overseas holidays during the year is the largest annual rise in nearly twenty years, and spending on holidays exceeded pre-crisis levels for the first time since the recession.”

The average number of nights the British go abroad for has remained at 10 since 2011. “This is likely due to the popularity of short breaks taken more frequently during the year,” said the ONS report. “Visits to Europe, the closest destination from the UK, were shorter on average at eight nights."

"Average length of stay was higher for countries outside Europe and North America, an average of 21 nights compared with visits to North America where the figure was 14 nights."

London welcomed 18.6million overseas visits in 2015

The ONS report also included figures on overseas visits to the UK, finding a rise of 5.1 per cent on 2014 to 36.1million visits. This was the fifth consecutive year of increase.

France registered the most visits to the UK, followed by the USA and Germany. More than half of all visits to the UK included a visit to London, a total of 18.6 million visits in 2015, an increase of 3.3 million on 2011. An additional 12.9 million visits came from within the UK, taking London’s total to 31.5 million, a record for the city.

Outside of the capital, Edinburgh was the most visited city in the UK, followed by Manchester, Birmingham, Glasgow and Liverpool.