The Office for National Statistics (ONS) said the number of holidays abroad fell by 2% to 14.3 million for the three-month period compared with the previous year. Business trips dropped even more steeply during this period, falling 10% to 1.6 million visits.

This decline came despite a 1.5% rise in overseas holidays in July, which rose to 5.2 million during the month. Although total international trips by UK residents were down by 1% for the first seven months to 25.8 million.

Overall there were a total of 20.1 million international visits by UK residents between May and July, which was down by 3% year-on-year.

One of the major trends was a rise in visits to North America, which rose by 4% to 1.1 million, while trips to Europe dropped by 4% to 16.8 million for the three month-period. Visits to other countries outside North America and Europe rose by 1% year-on-year.

There were 7.1 million visits by UK residents in July, which was a fall of 2% compared with July 2018, although the level of spending on these trips stayed constant at £4.8 billion.

For the first seven months of the year, the number of UK residents going overseas fell by 2% to 39.8 million. The figures are compiled from responses to the ONS’s International Passenger Survey.

The number of overseas visitors coming to the UK rose by 1% year-on-year to 10.8 million from May to July, including a 1% increase in July.

James Schofield, head of food, drink and leisure at Lloyds Bank Commercial Banking, said of the figures: “After a positive start to the year, Brits’ appetite to travel overseas waned as they entered peak season, and these figures show that trend continued into July. 

“It was encouraging to see, therefore, that overseas travellers were able to shrug off slowing global growth and take advantage of the continued relative weakness of sterling to visit the UK.”