Story · Transport map · about 3 min
Who comes here, and where do Britons go?
The Office for National Statistics counts the trips people make in both directions. Put them on one map and the pattern is plain: we are a nation that goes abroad more than the world comes to us, with a few striking exceptions.
Spain: seven to one
In 2024 Great Britain residents made 18.2 million visits to Spain. Spanish residents made 2.6 million visits here, about one for every 7. Teal routes mean more visitors come here than Britons go there; orange routes mean the opposite. Spain’s is the biggest orange route on the map.
The USA: the biggest source of visitors
The United States sends us more visits than any other country, 5.5 million in 2024, against 4.0 million going the other way. It is one of the few big teal routes. Click it to see how people arrive.
Most routes are orange
Of the 49 countries on the map, Britons go to 38 more than their residents come here. Every route is drawn now, so the orange lines reach Africa, Asia, South America and Oceania as well as Europe and the Americas. Holidays, second homes and family abroad all count, and so do the places that are simply cheaper or sunnier. These are trips: one person who travels three times counts three times.
Why people travel
84% of Britons' visits to Spain were holidays. The other way round the reasons change: 51% of visits here from India, and 41% from Poland, were to see friends or relatives, while only 15% of American visits were for business. Click a country and read "Why people travelled": it is the answer to who is going where, and what for.
How people travel
Of 91.5 million visits abroad by Britons in 2024, 88% began at an airport, 6% at a sea port and 6% in the Channel Tunnel. Coming the other way, of 39.1 million visits here, 82% arrived by air, 10% through the tunnel and 8% by sea. Spain is almost all air (98% of Britons’ visits); the near neighbours use the ground: 36% of Britons’ visits to France went through the tunnel, and 56% of those to Belgium. The survey only asks which port people went through, so a car on a ferry counts as sea, one on the Eurotunnel shuttle counts as the tunnel, and cars have no number of their own.
For classrooms and curious minds
Questions to talk about, alone or in a group.
- Why might a country send many visitors here but receive few from us, or the other way round?
- A visit counts one trip, not one person. How could that change what the map shows?
Try it on the map: Click a country you have visited, or would like to. Do more people travel from there to Britain, or from Britain to there?
The figures above are calculated from the datasets listed on Data & sources and are approximate: many map layers are modelled or interpolated. Read each layer’s caveats on the map.