asked Her Majesty's Government:

How many tourists with Indian passports visited the United Kingdom in 2005; and how many tourists from India visited Northern Ireland in this period. [HL427]

There were 332,000 tourist visits by Indian passport holders and 272,000 tourist visits by Indian residents to the UK in 2005. The data were obtained from the International Passenger Survey, which is a sample survey, so the results are subject to sampling error. Data for Northern Ireland have not been provided, because sample sizes are too small. VisitBritain expects visits from India to increase significantly in future years and regards India as a priority emerging market for its overseas activities in promoting inbound tourism to the UK.