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Tourists to Britain unfazed by London blasts
Indo-Asian News Service

London, Oct 8 (IANS) The July 7 bomb attacks here have failed to curb the enthusiasm of foreign tourists visiting Britain, official figures have revealed.

The UK welcomed 3.25 million foreign visitors in Aug 2005 - an increase on the 3.16 million in a year ago period. 

As many as 10 percent more foreign visitors entered the country over the year ending August 2005, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS). 

At the same time, the number of Britons venturing overseas rose by four percent. 

Visits by overseas residents to the UK rose from 26.9 million to 29.7 million in the year ended Aug 31, 2005. 

Although visits from the US residents fell by one percent to 4.3 million over the year, during August - the month after the bomb attacks on London's transport system - numbers rose to 530,000 from 461,000 in the same month a year earlier. 

There was a 10 percent rise in visitors from Western Europe to 19.2 million and travellers coming to the UK from other parts of the world rose by 22 percent to 6.2 million. 

The ONS figures appear to support recent findings of the Visit London organisation. 

Visit London suggested that the 25 percent drop in people visiting major London attractions in August 2005 was more due to fewer Britons travelling to the capital than to a lack of tourists from overseas.