But the reverse effect did not prevent increasing numbers of North Americans coming to Britain in the year until March 1998.

The number of North American tourists arriving increased by 11%, although visits by western Europeans dipped by 1%.

In the same period, UK residents made 11% more trips abroad, with European destinations the hot favourites.

Visitors down

The overall number of visitors to Britain fell slightly in the first three months of this year.

But tourism bosses wrote off the dip as an effect of Easter falling later than in the previous year.

Around 1.96 million foreign tourists came to the UK in March 1997.

This year, the figure fell to 1.77 million, according to the Office for National Statistics.

This means that, in the first three months of 1998, only 4.76 million overseas visitors have come to the UK, compared with 5.1 million in January to March 1997.

The slight fall also hit revenue for tourist industries. Spending by foreign visitors fell from £2.3bn to £2.2bn in the first three months of this year.

Record 1997 levels

Overall, around 26 million tourists from foreign countries came to the UK in 1997.

This record level caused total spending to reach £12.6bn, another all-time high.

More North Americans came to the UK than before and spent around £2bn.

Despite their image as backpackers on a budget, the top spenders turned out to be the Australian tourists.

However, the two may be consistent: the survey put their higher budgets down to the length of their stays.

The highest spenders on a day-by-day basis were revealed to be the Icelanders.

They blow on average £99 a day on their UK trips.