Cambridge punches far above its size as a visitor destination: a compact university city that draws around 8 million visitors a year, according to Cambridge City Council. Its historic colleges, punting on the Cam and world-class museums pulled in 479,000 inbound overnight visits in 2024 — making it the 10th most-visited town in the UK by international visitors — while the Fitzwilliam Museum recorded its busiest year ever with 506,428 visits. Yet the city's defining challenge is that only about one in ten visitors stays the night. The figures below come from official sources — VisitBritain and the ONS International Passenger Survey, Cambridge City Council and ALVA — and are the latest available as of 2026.
Key Cambridge tourism statistics
- Cambridge receives roughly 8 million visitors a year, approaching pre-pandemic levels (Cambridge City Council, March 2024).
- Inbound overnight visits reached 479,000 in 2024, up 8% on 444,000 in 2023 (VisitBritain / ONS IPS).
- Cambridge was the 10th most-visited UK town for inbound overnight visits in 2024, having ranked 9th in 2022 and 2023.
- The visitor economy generated £583.3 million in direct spend plus £220.3 million indirect — around £804 million combined — in 2022 (Cambridge City Council).
- Tourism accounts for 12.2% of employment in the city of Cambridge.
- Only about 10% of Cambridge's visitors stay overnight, according to Cambridge BID (Cambridge Independent).
- The Fitzwilliam Museum set an all-time record with 506,428 visitors in 2024, up 25% year on year (ALVA via Museums Association).
International visitors: three years of growth
- Inbound overnight visits climbed from 440,000 in 2022 to 444,000 in 2023 and 479,000 in 2024 — an 8% rise in the latest year (VisitBritain / ONS IPS).
- The IPS town data counts overnight stays only, so Cambridge's large day-trip market — including coach tours from London — sits on top of these figures.
- Nationally, the UK received 42.6 million inbound visits in 2024, with visitors spending £32.5 billion (VisitBritain), so Cambridge captured just over 1% of all inbound overnight town visits.
- Cambridge City Council reported in March 2024 that overall visitor numbers of c. 8 million a year were approaching pre-pandemic levels (council report).
How Cambridge compares with other UK cities
- Cambridge's 479,000 inbound overnight visits in 2024 placed it just behind rival university city Oxford (547,000) and ahead of Bristol (450,000), Brighton (414,000), Bath (353,000) and York (273,000) (VisitBritain).
- The top five most-visited UK towns in 2024 were London (20.9 million), Edinburgh (2.6 million), Manchester (1.5 million), Birmingham (927,000) and Liverpool (918,000).
- Cambridge held 9th place among UK towns in both 2022 and 2023 before slipping one spot to 10th in 2024 — even as its absolute visit numbers grew.
Visitor economy: spend and jobs
- Visitor spending generated £583,294,500 in direct spend and a further £220,313,000 in indirect spend in 2022 — around £804 million for the local economy (Cambridge City Council).
- The visitor economy accounts for 12.2% of employment in the city, making tourism one of Cambridge's largest employment sectors.
- Cambridge's previous destination management organisation, Visit Cambridge and Beyond, went into administration during the pandemic; its successor, Welcome to Cambridge, was founded in 2021 as a Community Interest Company by the City Council, Curating Cambridge, Cambridge BID and King's College.
- A Destination Management Plan for Greater Cambridge is being developed with funding from the UK Shared Prosperity Fund, focused on managing visitor impact on residents while raising the value of each visit.
Day-trippers vs overnight visitors
- "Only about 10 per cent of our visitors currently stay overnight," Cambridge BID chair Glen Sharp told the Cambridge Independent in 2024 — meaning the overwhelming majority of Cambridge's c. 8 million visitors are day-trippers.
- The gap is stark in official data: the council counts around 8 million visitors a year, while the ONS International Passenger Survey recorded just 479,000 inbound overnight visits in 2024.
- Encouraging "longer, higher economic value stays" was a stated aim of the proposed Accommodation BID business plan (Cambridge City Council, 2024).
- The council's strategy explicitly focuses on quality and value rather than quantity of visits — managing crowding pressure from large day-trip groups and coach parking in the compact historic core.
Museums, colleges and attractions
- The Fitzwilliam Museum had its busiest year on record in 2024 with 506,428 visitors — up 25% on 2023 and 45% on 2019 — helped by redeveloped galleries and exhibitions including Legion: life in the Roman army and Michelangelo: the last decades (ALVA via Museums Association).
- In 2025 the Fitzwilliam recorded 493,612 visitors — its second-highest attendance ever (ALVA figures).
- Across the UK, ALVA's roughly 400 member attractions received 157.2 million visits in 2024, up 3.4% — a slower recovery than 2023's 19% jump, which makes the Fitzwilliam's 25% growth stand out.
- King's College — whose chapel and grounds are among the city's most-visited paid attractions — is a founding partner of the Welcome to Cambridge destination body, alongside the City Council and Cambridge BID (Cambridge City Council).
- Several university colleges also operate commercial bed-and-breakfast lettings outside term time, competing directly with the city's hotels for overnight guests.
Hotels and the rejected visitor levy
- Roughly 35 hotels in Cambridge and South Cambridgeshire have more than 10 rooms and a rateable value above £34,500 — the threshold set for the proposed visitor levy (Cambridge City Council).
- The proposed Accommodation BID would have charged guests £2 per room per night, rising to £3 from year three, raising an estimated £1.5–£2.6 million a year — around £10–12 million over five years — for the visitor economy.
- Hoteliers rejected the levy in a June–July 2024 ballot: of 23 votes cast, 16 voted against and 6 in favour, with opponents holding £7.03 million in combined rateable value against supporters' £2.28 million (Cambridge Independent).
- The levy model assumed average hotel occupancy of 66–76% across the eligible properties.
- Airbnbs, self-catering units, guest houses and pubs with rooms were excluded from the proposal, and university college B&Bs could only have joined voluntarily.
- Manchester launched the UK's first hotel-sector Accommodation BID in April 2023, charging £1 plus VAT per room per night — the model Cambridge's proposal was based on.
Sources
- VisitBritain — Inbound visits and spend: trends by UK town (IPS/ONS)
- VisitBritain — Inbound visits and spend: annual, UK
- Cambridge City Council — Accommodation BID and Visitor Levy report (March 2024)
- Museums Association — ALVA 2024 visitor figures
- Cambridge Independent — Visitor levy rejected by hoteliers (2024)
- Fitzwilliam Museum — ALVA 2025 visitor figure
