Provisional figures from the Office of National Statistics show 16.1m overseas visitors to London last year, nearly 3% more than in 2006.
The total number of overnight visitors to the capital, including domestic, meanwhile, rose to 26.2m.
Total spending by overseas visitors increased by 11.2% year-on-year to £8.7bn, with total spend by all overnighting visitors reaching a record £10.9bn (+8%). Including day trips, the total spend hit £15bn.
Commenting on the figures Visit London chief executive, James Bidwell, said: ‘Record numbers of overseas visitors to our capital together with record levels of spend boosted the economy by an additional £800m last year.
‘Tourism is worth around £15bn a year to London and with 280,000 full time jobs our industry is a key economic driver for the capital.
‘This is particularly encouraging in the lead up to 2012 when the tourism and cultural sectors will be the primary economic beneficiaries of the Games.’
Despite the weak American dollar, which resulted in a 1.7% decline in US visitors to 2.5m, their spending rose 5.3% to £1.6bn last year, its highest since 2000.
The US remains London’s largest market followed by France (1.34m visitors) and Germany (1.25m visitors).
Visits from Europe to London last year rose by just 2.7%, but other mature markets saw significant growth, with Australia for example up almost 20% at 690k.
The growing importance of emerging markets was also reflected in the figures, with visitors from China up 37% at 89k, and from India up more than 3% at 237k. For the second consecutive year, Indian visitors to London outspent the Japanese with £171m versus £149m.
In contrast to the strength of overseas markets, domestic tourism to the capital declined by 7.5% year-on-year to 10.1m visits in 2007. This reflected results across the UK, which saw overall domestic visitors fall by 2%.
Bidwell attributed the decline in domestic visitors primarily to the growth of budget airlines and expanding regional airports across Europe.
Global tourism growth is expected to slow in 2008, although the World Tourism Organisation still expects the year-on-year increase to remain close to the long-term average of 4%.
Visit London also expects overseas and domestic tourism to the capital to slow this year. However, it said strong visitor numbers since 2005 ‘put London in a resilient position to face any slowdown’.
See also:
WTTC: tourism slowdown to pick up next year (06/03/08)
Visit London debuts in Poland (27/02/08)
VisitBritain forecasts 2008 inbound decline (19/12/07)