Record number of tourists set to deliver £27bn boost to UK economy in 2018
42 million visitors are expected to come to UK in 2018 - and contribute £650 each to our economy
More people are expected to flock to the UK than ever before in 2018, according to the national tourism agency.
VisitBritain predicts there will be nearly 42 million visits over the next 12 months, with tourists to spend an estimated £27 billion.
Total visits for 2017 are on track to hit 39.9 million by the end of the year, with forecasts for 2018 predicting 41.7 million, a jump of 4.5 per cent.
The latest official statistics show there were 30.2 million visits between January and September, up 7 per cent on 2016, with tourists from EU countries accounting for around two-thirds of this number.
Additionally, visitor numbers from the US rose by around 14 per cent in this period, thanks in part to the draw of the weakened pound following Brexit.
VisitBritain director Patricia Yates said: "These results not only demonstrate Britain's continued ability to compete internationally for visitors, they are testament to tourism's importance as a driver of economic growth."
Tourism is worth £127 billion to the UK economy, according to VisitBritain.
Meanwhile industry bosses said recent terror attacks in the UK have affected domestic family tourism but failed to deter international visitors, as 2017 saw record tourist levels.
Central London attractions saw a fall in numbers of around 17 per cent on average between May and the second week of September compared with 2016, according to Bernard Donoghue, director of the Association of Leading Visitor Attractions (Alva).
During that time there were four terror attacks in the UK, three of which happened in the capital, killing more than 30 people.
Donoghue said that "because they weren't brought up in the shadow of the UK and the IRA this is their first experience of domestic terror, while some of us who are older may take it in our stride and keep calm and carry on.
"But they are going elsewhere, places like Bath, Bristol, Oxford, instead."
But 2017 has been a record year to date for visitors to the UK in general and London in particular, with growth set to continue for 2018, he added.
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There were 30.2 million visits to the UK from overseas in the first nine months of the year, up 7% on the same period in 2016, projected to reach 39.9 million by the end of the year, the latest VisitBritain figures show.
Meanwhile, Tom Jenkins, chief executive of the European Tourism Association (Etoa), said the public were rationalising the spate of attacks, realising they could happen anywhere.
"The threat posed is almost certainly minimal, and fear would stop everyday life if we let it," he said.