The table displays information regarding visitors, spending and the length of their trip to the UK from 2003 to 2008. Looking from an overall perspective, it is readily apparent that overall visits, total spending, and average spending rose considerably with only average nights per visit falling towards the end of the period. The largest growth proportionally was for total spending.
Looking first of all at quantity of visits, there were 24,715,000 million travellers to the UK in 2003 and this figure climbed steadily by around 2 to 3 million each year until 2006 when it plateaued at about 32 million before receding slightly to 31.8 million to finish the time surveyed. Similarly, average spending in billions of pounds rose sharply from 11.855 to a 16.002 in 2006, then leveled off and, in contrast, rebounded marginally to finish the period at 16.323.
In terms of average spending, this figure began at 475 pounds in 2003, declined moderately to 266 the next year and then rose consistently to conclude with a final surge to 511 in 2008. The only data to decline was average nights per visit which began at 8.2 in 2003, remained level for a year and then rose by .1 each year until 2006, before a sudden drop to 7.7 nights in 2007 and 2008.