Domestic Tourism in Surrey
Just a short journey from central London, and flanked by the two major international airports of Heathrow and Gatwick, Surrey is a beautiful and diverse county blessed with beautiful natural scenery, and a rich history and heritage.
Unsurprisingly, Surrey is a beacon for many tourists, and tourism is a key contributor to the local economy.
For more information on places to visit, stay, and dine please see Visit Surrey: Surrey's Official Tourism Website.
Domestic Tourism in Surrey
These data have been produced by the British Tourist Authority (BTA), operating under the brand names VisitBritain and VisitEngland. BTA is the national tourism agency, with a mission to raise Britain’s profile internationally, grow the volume and value of tourism exports, and support the development of England’s visitor economy. They work in partnership with organisations of all sizes and across sectors.
This data is published as statistics in development (more information on this can be found on the Office for Statistics Regulation website).
Two sets of data have been published which shed insight on the levels of tourist activity in Surrey and its constituent local authorities:
England local authorities, overnight trips, to 2019
Domestic tourism statistics for England Counties, 2022 to 2025
Due to methodology changes, the most recent data (from 2022) can not be compared directly with the earlier data sets. Our analysis here is therefore cut into two separate and distinct blocks, with two download resources available below.
Both datasets are derived from SURVEYS. From 2006 to 2010, and then from 2011 to 2019, domestic overnight tourism statistics for Great Britain were collected through the Great Britain Tourism Survey (GBTS). In 2019, following a review of the requirements and methods for producing these statistics, substantial changes were introduced as part of a new combined online survey collecting data on both domestic overnight trips as well as domestic day trips. This represents a fundamental change in the way data is collected for overnight visits, and a break in the statistical series.
Therefore, estimates of domestic overnight tourism for 2019 and earlier are not comparable to estimates for 2021 and later. The survey basis also means that values for individual years do not always carry sufficient statistical robustness or weight to support firm conclusions. For that reason, earlier statistics are best considered as annualised values taken across multiple years.
2017-2019
Surrey saw an average annual volume of:
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1,349,000 overnight and day trips of which there were 281,000 'holiday' trips.
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3.6 million overnight stays in total, and 615,000 holiday overnight stays.
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A total average annual spend of £ 183 million, of which £41.3 million related to holidays.
Amongst the individual district and borough councils, Guildford saw significantly more tourism volumes than the others, with 271,000 trips compared to a minimum volume of just 43,000 in Tandridge. Guildford had 62,000 holiday trips (Woking had just 5,000); a total of 743,000 nights (lowest was Tandridge at just 150,000) and 138,000 holiday nights stayed (compared to just 8,000 in Woking). This elevated volume of tourist activity led to local spend of £39 million in Guildford, with just £10 million annually in Epsom and Ewell. These volumes presumably reflect at least in part the location of University in Guildford.
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A crude summation of published council values suggests an indicative assumption of total local spend between the two new unitary authorities of £ 70 million per year in East Surrey, and of £ 112 million in West Surrey.
2022-2025
The later data no longer breaks down statistics to an individual district and borough level, with values being available for the county only.
In 2025 there were 1.5 million overnight trips, comprising 3.2 million nights, and a total spend of £ 354 million.
By comparison, the average annual volumes for holiday related tourism in the period 2023-2025 estimate 0.3 million holiday trips per year, around 732,000 night stays, and total holiday spend of £ 105 million per year.
In terms of Tourist Day Visits, 2025 saw an estimated 20.4 million trips, and an associated local spend of £ 947 million.
In the absence of individual district and borough statistics amongst this latest information, it is tempting to assume a similar breakdown of tourism stays as was derived in the 2017-2019 surveys.
Please visit the Visit Britain site at link below for more information on the statistics:
Domestic Tourism, regional and subregional data | VisitBritain.org
These statistics remain copyrighted by the British Tourist Authority.
© British Tourist Authority
