VisitBritain predicts that inbound tourism levels will increase by 3 per cent during 2013 - translating to more than 1 million extra visitors.

Publishing figures from its annual review for 2012, the agency said that during the past year the tourism industry contributed a record £18.7bn to Britain's economy, a 5 per cent rise in nominal terms.

Records also show that inbound tourism is now the nation's third biggest earner of foreign exchange and has increased by 3 per cent in volume and 8 per cent in value since May 2010.

Tourism - both domestic and international - is also the country's fifth largest employer, supporting 2.6 million jobs and contributing £115bn to the economy. In the past two years tourism has accounted for a third of all new employment in the UK.

Launching the review, chair of VisitBritain, Christopher Rodrigues said: "2012 has shown just what Britain can offer.

"It has re-energised our image overseas and triggered the desire to visit our country. Our job now is to turn aspiration into action. And the best way to do that is to continue the exceptional levels of collaboration between the industry, the public sector and the government that we saw in 2012.

"We also need to keep the extraordinary spirit of the Games Makers alive in our visitor welcome."

To read more on VisitBritain's figures, click here.