A total of 3.39 million tourists visited Britain in August, a 1 per cent increase on the same period in 2007, despite the least amount of sunshine for 79 years.

The increase resulted in a 2 per cent boost in inbound tourism for the eight months to August 2008, compared with the same period in 2007, according to the Office of National Statistics (NOS). Spending increased by 6 per cent to £11bn in the year-to-date (ending August).

However, the number of Canadian and North American tourists fell by 7 per cent during the eight months to August and dropped by 20 per cent in August alone, compared to the previous year.

A spokesperson for Visit Britain attributed the fall in North American visitors to "The continuing poor economic climate in the US, low levels of consumer confidence, the high costs of aviation and the weakness of the dollar in the lead-up to August."

EU accession countries contributed largely to the increase, with 20 per cent more visits coming from Bulgaria, South Cyprus, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Lativia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia.

Non-European visitors and the rest of the world accounted for 8 per cent of all visits.

Elliot Frisby, spokesperson for VisitBritain, said: "The figures are a positive sign that Britain continues to be a popular destination for visitors from abroad. However, as we have seen earlier in the year, although we remain the favourite long-haul destination for Americans, we must continue to do more to remind them of all the historic and contemporary experiences they can enjoy here as competition for the US dollar becomes ever more fierce.

"Today, we are seeing far greater growth in visitors from new markets - countries in Eastern Europe, South East Asia, in India and China - who are yet to experience many of the world-class attractions of London and Britain."