The highest number of day trips in any month since 2012 were taken in August, new figures from VisitEngland show.
The total of 151 million trips across England was up 14% on August 2015, with spending hitting a record £5.5 billion – the highest for a single month in five years.
The figures bring overall domestic tourism day trips in England from January to August to 988 million, up 14% on the same period last year with spend up 9% to £32.2 billion. Both are records for a first eight months of the year.
The top purposes for day trips were to ‘go out for a meal’ followed by ‘taking part in leisure activities’ including walking, cycling and golf, and ‘visiting friends and family.’
The north-east saw the highest year-on-year percentage rise in days out, up 34% to 52.8 million in the first eight months of the year, followed by the West Midlands.
London had the largest spend on day trips with £7.3 billion.
VisitEngland chief executive Sally Balcombe said: “England is packed full of incredible experiences that you can only get here and we look forward to continuing to work with the tourism industry to develop England’s competitive tourism offer, get more people out exploring the country and drive growth across all the regions.”