London's Tate Modern received 4.6m visitors in 2002

London is Europe's top city break destination, new figures suggest.

The English capital welcomed 11.6m overseas visitors and 16.1m UK tourists in 2002 - ahead of its nearest rival Paris which had 9m foreign visitors.

Mintel, who carried out the research, said that the city had benefitted enormously from low-cost air routes.

London has put a lot of effort into promoting itself in the UK and abroad, editor of Mintel's travel and tourism intelligence Yasmin Razak said.

Free attractions

"Many visitors are now coming to London's new and redeveloped attractions, as well as the old favourites, many of which are now free," Ms Razak added.

The British Museum and the Tate Modern each received 4.6m visitors in 2002 - making them the most popular London attractions.

The National Gallery and the British Airways London Eye had some 4.1m visitors each.

The abolition of admission fees has meant that other museums such as the Natural History Museum, the Victoria and Albert Museum and the Science Museum in central London saw their visitor numbers double between 2001 and 2002.

London has put a lot of effort into promoting itself Yasmin Razak Mintel

The majority of London's tourists are American, with 2.5m people from the US coming to the city in 2002.

In second place were the French with 1m visitors.

After London and Paris, the most-visited European capitals in 2002 were Amsterdam with 5m visitors, Rome with 3.9m and Dublin on 3.5m.