Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, with reference to correspondence from the Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury to the Chair of the Association of International Retail dated October 15th 2025, on what evidential basis the Exchequer Secretary stated that tourism receipts in 2023 were 103 per cent of 2019 levels; and whether those figures related to tourism receipts for international tourism alone.

The 103% figure for the UK’s real recovery in tourism receipts between 2019 and 2023 is based on official data. The underlying data comes from the ONS Balance of Payments (series FJPF), which tracks spending in the UK by overseas visitors. To adjust for inflation, the figures are deflated using the UK Harmonised Index of Consumer Prices (HICP), also published by the ONS. The percentage is calculated by comparing 2023 receipts (in 2019 prices) to the 2019 baseline.