SPAIN is now the most popular destination for UK residents, according to UK Office of National Statistics. Visits to Spain rose to 12.6m, up 7% from 2001, compared to a 2% drop for France. For years France has been the most popular destination, buoyed by 3.3m day trips across the channel each year. Spain's prominence is further highlighted by examining the amount spent by the British on Holiday. More is spent in Spain than any other country despite having a lower average spend per day than most western countries. In Europe only Malta, Turkey and former Yugoslavia have lower average spend per day. The main cause of the high overall spend is due to the long holidays taken in Spain (11 days on average). 90% of visits to Spain were for Holidays compared to only 59% for France. For 2001 there were 10.7m Spanish holidays, costing 117m pounds. Visiting friends and relatives and business trips came in second and third with 3.3% and 2.5% of visits respectively. The latest figures (seasonally adjusted) for the first three months of 2003 show that travel has decreased by 1% from the last quarter of 2002 but increased up 6% on the same period last year. Spending has increased by 1% from the last quarter of 2002. Over a quarter of all British holidays are to Spain. http://www.statistics.gov.uk/CCI/nugget.asp?ID=178