Visits to the UK by overseas residents rose very slightly in the third quarter of 2016 to an estimated 10.7 million.
The latest ONS figures show numbers were up 1.5% compared with the number of visits made during the same period in 2015.
Of the 10.7 million total, 4.4 million came to Britain on holiday, but this represented a drop of 1.7% over 2015.
The fall was balanced out by a 5.5% rise in the number of visits to friends and relatives, largely from North America (9.6%) and from Europe (7.7%).
Business visits rose 1.9%.
Overall, an estimated total of 96.9 million nights were spent in the UK by overseas residents during the June to September period, a fall of 0.2% compared with the same quarter in 2015.
The number of nights spent in the UK by overseas visitors from North America increased by 5.8%, while nights spent in the UK by residents of Europe rose by 1%.
But the number of nights spent by residents of other countries fell by 4.5%.
Overnight visits to London fell by 0.8% to 5.2 million, but those to the rest of England saw an increase of 3.2% when compared with the same period in 2015.
Overnight visits to Scotland increased by 4.5%, as to Wales by 8.6%.
Estimated earnings from all visits to the UK rose 3% to £7.4 billion.
Spending by residents of North America saw the largest increase of 17.5% to £1.4 billion.
Spending by residents of ‘other countries’ also grew, by 2.7%, but spending by residents of Europe fell by 1.8%.
