Abstract
Inbound tourism during in the United Kingdom has been subject to the influence of many factors like the weather with exceptional rainfalls, flooding, storms, health scares (outbreak of Foot and Mouth Disease, avian flu), threat of terrorism: two attempts of terrorist attacks took place at the end of June and start of July 2007, one in central London and the other at Glasgow Airport, the rise of the oil prices, the strong currency etc. However the international tourist arrivals in the country beat all the records, recording 32.713 million visits for 2006 with the receipts exceeding £16 billion. With such results the UK retains its 6th position in terms of arrivals worldwide: it accounts for 3.6% of all international arrivals behind France, Spain, USA, China and Italy. However this represents a slight decrease compared to 2005 during which the country welcomed 3.7% of all international arrivals. In terms of international tourist receipts the UK stands at the sixth place, being replaced by China at the 5th position. The other four countries in the top five are: USA, Spain, France and Italy. Nevertheless it can be underlined that despite the FIFA World Cup the UK has managed to stay ahead of Germany (ranks 7th).
