When the pandemic hit in March 2020, the number of visitors to London obviously took a tumble towards zero, given that international travel for leisure became a big nogo.
Since restrictions began to ease, numbers have been slowly but surely sneaking back up – yet the tourism numbers have never reached the levels we knew back in 2019. Until now.
According to the Office for National Statistics (ONS), London welcomed 5.3 million foreign visitors in the summer months (June – August), which was around 60,000 fewer than the number recorded in the same time period of 2019.
During this time, it’s estimated in a BBC report that tourists spent an eye-watering £4.3 billion. It’s also thought that the majority of visitors were here for pleasure rather than business.
In the ONS report, it was found that North American tourists made up a large chunk of these numbers, with them flocking to the Royal attractions en masse as well as to the countless London landmarks.
So London is nearly back at the pre-pandemic numbers for tourism, which can only be a good thing to help this city keep on ticking the way we know it’s supposed to. Come 2024, we could be looking at those 60,000 people being made up and even overtaking the 2019 figure of visitors to the capital. ‘Til then, we’ll just be continuing to direct you – tourist or local – to the very best things to do around this place.