Fewer visitors to London after July 7 bombings

London, Feb 10 There has been a sharp decline in the number of overseas visitors to London after the July 7 bombings but the number of tourists from India went up by almost a third, according to official figures.

The figures released this week by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) show that there was a two percent drop, to 3.7 million, in the number of visits to the British capital in the third quarter of 2005 compared with the same quarter of 2004.

This contrasts with increases of 14 percent and 10 percent in the first and second quarters of 2005, respectively.

The ONS figures reported a rise in visitors spread across all overseas markets but said strong growth rates from countries such as China, India and Southeast Asia outpaced many traditional tourism markets.

Visits from people in these new markets grew by 35 percent and spending by 29 percent last year. Visits from West European tourists rose but by a more moderate eight percent. The number of North Americans visiting Britain last year was down by three percent.

However, the number of visitors to Britain over the whole year rose by eight percent compared with the previous year, to reach almost 30 million and the amount spent by those tourists rose by nine percent, generating 14.3 billion pounds.

Tom Wright, chief executive of VisitBritain, the national tourism agency that put together the report, said: "The July bombings clearly had a big impact on tourism but our figures show this has been relatively short-lived.

"While many businesses faced a difficult summer, there are clear signs of a recovery with a record 12.1 million customers spending over 375 million pounds in London's theatre land last year - a third of them from overseas."

According to the Financial Times, leisure analysts also reported a volatile year for tourism.

Tim Helliwell, Barclays' expert on the hotel and leisure sector, told the paper: "The impact of the London July bombings on the hotel industry was a 'V' shape with an immediate dip in visitor numbers to the capital in the aftermath of the atrocities followed by a fairly sharp rebound as the year progressed."

On July 7, 2004, a series of coordinated suicide bombings struck London's public transport system, killing 56 people including the four suspected bombers and injuring some 700.