VisitBritain is predicting overseas visitors will spend close to £23 billion, a 4.2% increase on spending this year which is expected to close at £22 billion.

The increased spend will come from a predicted 36.7 million visitors, a 3.8% increase on 2015 which saw about 35.4 million visits made.

The latest prediction means VisitBritain is well on track in its ambition to grow visitor numbers by more than 20% in the next five years to 42 million by 2020, driving a £4.5 billion increase in spend.

VisitBritain chief executive Sally Balcombe said: “Everything we do is motivated by the goal to add value to the tourism industry by building our competitive tourism offer and driving economic growth and jobs across all our nations and regions, so that the benefits of tourism are felt across the whole of Britain.

“We are competing in a tough international environment and these results highlight how strongly the tourism sector, one of the UK’s fastest growing export industries, has performed and how the Government’s tourism strategy, supported by the GREAT campaign, is producing results.”

VisitBritain’s campaigns have continued to produce results and generated an extra £2.5 billion in international visitor spend in Britain during the last four years.