Spain is our top holiday spot

The lure of sunshine, sandy beaches and tapas is becoming increasingly hard to resist for Britons leaving these shores for a well-earned break.

Spain has overtaken France as the most popular holiday destination for UK residents, according to new figures released today for National Statistics. The number of trips to the country increased last year by 6.2 per cent to 12.5 million, with the holidaymakers staying for 11 days on average.

Despite being edged into second place, our love affair with France remains intact, with the country playing host to 12.1 million British visitors - an increase of 1.3 per cent.

Our love of the Continent seems to be outstripping our neighbour's love of these shores, as the figures reveal there is more tourism money leaving the UK than coming in. A record £27 billion was spent by Britons abroad in 2002.

In more bad news for the British tourism industry, the Good Britain Guide, published today, warned that Britain's beaches are disappearing due to global warming and "ill-conceived sea defence schemes", which have led to sand being lost on popular coastlines.

Britain's best and worst tourist attractions are also revealed in the survey. Wales tops the poll as the place most visitors to the UK wish to avoid.

While London attracted close to five million foreign visitors last year, Edinburgh more than half a million and areas like the Scottish Highlands and

Local government officials gave the green light for up to 150,000 Kent more than a quarter of a million each, the valleys of south Wales, Blaenau Gwent and Merthyr Tydfil failed to lure a single tourist, according to Travel Trends, the new international travel survey published by the statistics office.

Overall, visits by overseas nationals to the UK last year on business and pleasure totalled 24.2 million - a rise of 1.3 million or six per cent over 2001, when numbers plunged due to the foot and mouth outbreak followed by the effects of the September 11 terrorist attacks in America on tourism internationally.

However, the figures have yet to reflect the peak achieved in 2000, when 25,209,000 overseas visitors came to the UK - 13,145,000 of them to London alone.

But, as more foreigners returned to British shores, even more Britons than ever before travelled overseas - making a record number of 59.4 million visits abroad - an increase of two per cent over 2001, of which 39.9 million were holiday visits.

While foreign visitors spent £11.7 billion in the UK - £0.4 billion up on 2001 - our spending overseas on holiday or on business led to a record deficit in the 2002 balance of payments of £15.2 billion - £1.2 billion more than the previous year. Spain took just over £5billion from British visitors. France, where stays averaged five nights, took £3.6 billion.