well who would be the losers ? , According to the most recent government statistics, UK residents made 55.5 million visits abroad in 2011. That was a rise of 2.3% on the previous year – the first upward movement in the figures since 2006.
However, although there were more trips than in 2010, the amount that people spent and the number of nights they spent away were both fractionally down, by 0.4% and 2% respectively.
The number of visits to Europe grew by 3.5% while visits to North America were up 0.4%.
A lot of growth was accounted for by residents of London. They made 11.7 million visits abroad, an increase of 5% on 2010. In the rest of England and Wales the figures were up 1% while Scotland was down 1.1%.
By far the most popular countries are Spain (10.6 million) and France (8.9 million) which together account for 34% of all visits abroad.