London is the "greatest city on the planet".

Boris Johnson, Mayor of London, concludes from the latest overseas visitor figures that London is  the “greatest city on the planet”. Figures from the Office for National Statistics indicate that in the first nine months of 2013 London had 12.8m visitors, an increase of 12% over 2012. But the increase in visitor spend was only 5%

Provisional estimates suggest that in the first nine months of 2013 there were nearly 25 million international visits to the UK, a rise of 11% year on year.

The figures for the third quarter July to September reveal the UK tourism deficit.

Visits to the UK by overseas residents increased by 12.1% to 9.9 million, number of nights increased by 9.2% and earnings by 11.4% to £7.2bn

Visits abroad by UK residents increased by 6.9% to 20.6 million, the number of nights spent abroad increased by 9.2% and expenditure abroad increased by 8.3% to £12.7bn.

The balance of trade deficit on travel and tourism continues, standing at £5.5bn