Luxury watch retailers in tourism hot spots will be delighted with updated forecasts from Visit Britain, which predicts the number of visitors coming to the UK in 2018 will rise by 6.2% to 39.9 million.
The organisation also expects spending by visitors to increase by 6.8% to £26.9 billion.
Brexit has created uncertainty, Visit Britain says, but most potential European visitors do not say Brexit influences their decision to travel to Britain for leisure.
Most Europeans still see Britain as a welcoming destination, and believe that the exchange rate means that now is a good time to visit.
Visit Britain says that the performance of the pound against major work currencies this year is hard to predict, but expects it to remain weak in the medium term, making Britain a good value for money destination.
The main source markets for visitors to Britain generally have stable and growing economies. Short term forecasts for the Eurozone were upgraded several times during 2017 and the outlook is moderate and stable.
The US economy is growing, employment is rising and consumer spending is healthy, although there is a divergence between spending growth and weaker income growth as well as a lot of uncertainty over tax and investment policies.
Emerging markets such as China, India and of South East Asia continue to grow at a rapid pace. Even Russia and Brazil have emerged from a recession.
The Middle East is hampered by much lower oil prices than those seen a few years ago but growth forecasts for 2018 are generally more positive than in 2017.
