UK residents are travelling more for business than for leisure, according to a recent report released by the Office for National Statistics (ONS), an independent producer of official statistics for the UK.
The report suggests that the number of international business trips made by UK residents has increased by 5 percent in the last year, compared to those made in the previous year. UK residents made around 6.98 million overseas business trips in the year ending June 30, 2012, compared to 6.62 million business trips made in the same period, ending June 2011. Meanwhile, leisure trips have declined by 2 percent in the past year, when compared to the previous year.
The three months leading to June 30, 2012, have seen a 5 percent rise in overseas business trips, compared to the same period in 2011.
A smaller number of UK residents staying abroad have decided to return to the UK in the year ended June 30, 2012, from 2.9 million reported in June 2011, to 2.6 million reported in June 2012, which resulted in reduced earnings from these visits, from £1.7 billion in 2012, to £1.6 billion in 2011.
Europe remains a favourite with UK residents that travel overseas, with around 44 million visits recorded in the year to June 2012, compared to 3.6 million visits made to the US, and 9.2 million made to rest of the world. These visits have resulted in expenditure of £31.9 billion by UK residents in the year ended June 30, 2012, an increase of 1 percent from the previous year.
