Despite the credit crunch, more Britons are going abroad for their holidays, official figures showed today.

Despite the credit crunch, more Britons are going abroad for their holidays, official figures showed today.

According to the Office for National Statistics, 2% more UK residents travelled abroad in the 12 months from July 2007 compared to the previous period.

Some 56 million travelled to Europe, 4.8 million to the US and 9.9 million to other parts of the globe.

Visits from overseas residents to the UK however remained roughly the same at 33 million, while an additional 1.5 million Britons travelled abroad.

Some 4.3 million North Americans visited the UK, 6% fewer than the previous 12 months.

During the same period, European visits to the UK rose by 1% to 24.2 million and visits from the rest of the world increased by 4% to 4.7 million.

However, during the months of May to July this year, 4% fewer foreign visitors came to the UK, when compared to the previous three months.

Over the same three months the number of visits abroad by UK residents and the spending by overseas visitors within the UK remained the same.