Attractions in the UK are said to be enticing more overseas visitors

They believe 2004 could outdo 1998 - which saw a peak of 25.7m foreign visitors - with 26.34m people expected to visit the UK this year.

Tourism authority Visit Britain said Britons were also spending more.

In 2003 home visitors spent �20bn on overnight stays in the UK, filling 60% of accommodation each night, they said.

Gateway cities

Visit Britain also revealed visitor attractions had seen a 2% rise in numbers in 2003, saying a number of advertising campaigns abroad had worked well, enticing thousands to the UK.

Key "gateway" cities, such as New York, Washington and Los Angeles had been targeted, along with new markets such as Russia, Poland, South Korea and China.

The news would apparently contradict earlier estimates by the United Nations that as many as five million tourist-related jobs would be lost worldwide due to the outbreak of Sars in the Far East.

Although more people are coming here, they are not staying as long and that means hotel occupancy rates have not increased Julia Felton, Hotel Benchmark

Sir Michael Lickiss, chairman of Visit Britain said British tourism, was now "well on the road to recovery" after the "challenges" of the last three years.

"If the latest estimates on visitor numbers for 2004 are fulfilled, the British tourism industry will have much to celebrate," he said.

But Blackpool Pleasure Beach, the UK's most popular tourist attraction, said visitor numbers were still not at pre foot-and-mouth levels with competition for the "leisure pound" becoming increasingly stiff.

However, Gill Mathison, head of public relations, said although there were fewer visitors, they were staying longer - on average five hours - and spending more.

Julia Felton, executive director of the Hotel Benchmark team at Deloitte, which monitors the hotel industry, was cautious.

"Hotel occupancy has increased but that is only because it has come from a lower base because of 11 September," she said.

"Outside London, occupancy figures are likely to come in this year around 71%, which is typical of what we would expect.

Shorter breaks

"In London we would expect an increase in demand, primarily coming from Europe. London this year is probably going to finish around 77% to 78%, which is again pretty typical.

"Compare this to 83% in the Silver Jubilee year in 1977 and London still has a long way to go in order to get to these peak levels of occupancy."

She said much of the growth had come from Europe, where most came for shorter breaks, rather than visitors from the US and Japan who came for longer. These numbers have fallen due to fears of terrorist attacks and the decline in the Japanese economy.

"Although more people are coming here, they are not staying as long and that means hotel occupancy rates have not increased as a result," she said.