Number of visitors to UK drops in Olympic month

The number of visitors to the UK fell in August, despite the Olympics, but the amount they spent rose, figures released here showed Thursday. Overseas residents made three million visits to the UK in the month, down 5 percent from August 2011, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS). But the amount spent by visitors, which includes their spending on Olympic tickets, was up 9 percent on August 2011. The Olympic Games ran from 27 July to 12 August while the Paralympics began on 29 August. The ONS estimated that 590 thousand people in July and August normally resident outside the UK had visited and attended at least one ticketed Olympic or Paralympic event, of whom 420 thousand visited primarily for the games. The ONS stressed that there may have been other reasons for the fall in visitor numbers. "Wet weather is a very important factor to consider alongside the Olympics and other things like exchange rates, which may have an impact on visits," Roger Smith from the ONS told BBC News. Between June and August the number of visits was down 7 percent compared with 2011, but for the year to the end of August the UK had the same number of total visitors as last year. UK residents made 7.3 million trips abroad in August, which was down 1 percent from the same month last year. The ONS figures are taken from interviews with people leaving the UK during the month of August, so exclude visitors who did not leave the country until after the end of the month. Of the 420 thousand people whose main reason for visiting was the Olympics, 260 thousand were residents of European countries with 80 thousand coming from North America. The average spend by visitors who attended at least one ticketed event was 1,290 pound- almost twice as much as those who did not.