Indian tourists spend more than Japanese

Money spent by Indian tourists in London has increased from 78 million pounds in 2003 to 139 million pounds in 2006.

For the first time in 2006, Indian tourists in London spent more than Japanese tourists. Underlining the increasing spending power of India's middleclass, the city also saw the number of Indian tourists go up from 1, 30,000 in 2003 to 2, 12,000 in 2006.

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Figures from Visit London, a website that promotes and markets the city, shows that tourists from India spent 139 million pounds last year, up from 107 million in 2005 and 78 million pounds in 2003.

Compared to this, some 2, 30,000 Japanese nationals visited London last year, spending a total of 123 million pounds.

US tourists remain the largest visitors to London and account for 16 per cent of all overseas visitors to London. There were 2.4 million US tourist visits last year worth 1.5 billion pounds, the Guardian reported.