UK

UK

Although England is only the sixth most visited country, it places at No.3 on the amount of money spent per tourist, a fact which shows exactly how high the cost of living in London is. England is the home of the first ever tourism company, Thomas Cook, which still operates today assisting both incoming and outgoing tourists. Almost half of the visitors  to the UK head to London, which holds popular sites like Buckingham Palace, the Houses of Parliament, and The British Museum (which received over 5.5 million visitors in 2012).

The tourist industry is an important section of the UK's GDP at almost 8.6% of the economy (£96 billion). Amusingly, given the long-held rivalry between the two, it is the French that make up the bulk of England's tourists at 3.6m visitors in 2010.