GuruWalk, the world’s largest free tours platform, has reviewed its free tour bookings for the coming months to build a unique interactive map showing the global movements of travellers worldwide, including Britons.
The map also reveals the movements of travellers from many other countries. In Ireland, Spain leads preferences with 13.8% of bookings, followed by Italy with 12.1%. In Poland, however, Italy takes the top spot with 10.9%, followed by the UK with 8.8%, while Spain trails at just 4.7%. In Taiwan, travellers prioritise destinations such as Germany (10.9%) and Czechia (9.1%), while in the Dominican Republic the favourite is Colombia, with 18%, followed by Peru (13.1%) and Canada (11.5%).

Between 21 June and 22 September, Spain cements itself as Britons’ favourite destination, with 12.1% of free tour bookings. Italy follows closely behind with 10.1%, while domestic destinations account for 6.7% of bookings. Behind them come Portugal, with 5.8%, Croatia, with 5.3%, and Poland, with 4.2%.

Beyond Europe, the most popular destinations among Britons are the United States and Canada, tied at 2.2% of bookings each. In Asia, the favourite is Japan, with 2.1% of total bookings.
In Portugal and Croatia, British travellers will mostly explore the streets of Porto (49.2%) and Lisbon (30.3%), and Dubrovnik (48.3%) and Split (31.6%), respectively. In Poland, Kraków stands out as the clear favourite with 50.3% of bookings, followed by Warsaw, with 19.7%, and Gdańsk, with 15.3%.

Spain, the destination of choice
Spain is the star of Britons’ summer plans, accounting for a 12.1% share of their total free tour bookings. Within the country, Barcelona leads the ranking with 20.5% of bookings, followed by Seville, with 15.6%. Madrid takes third place with 7.5%, ahead of Málaga (7.3%), Bilbao (7.0%) and Valencia (6.8%).

Italy, the strongest rival
Italy ranks as Britons’ second favourite option. Rome accounts for 30.1% of the free tour bookings made by British travellers in the country, followed by Florence, with 18.8%, Venice, with 10.2%, Naples, with 9.3%, and Milan, which rounds off the list with 8.8%.

Staying at home: where Britons go when they don’t leave the country
When Britons choose to stay closer to home, London stands out by far as the undisputed capital of domestic tourism, accounting for 41.1% of bookings. Belfast follows, with 16.7%, and Edinburgh, with 14.6%. Behind them come Liverpool (9.5%), and Manchester and Newcastle upon Tyne, which tie for the last spot in the top with 4.1% each.
“We love seeing that, for Britons too, summer remains synonymous with exploring new cultures, whether that means crossing the Channel or rediscovering corners of their own country,” explains Belén Casanova, Head of Supply at GuruWalk. “It’s no surprise that Spain and Italy top the booking rankings: they’re destinations British travellers return to again and again, because there’s always something new to discover,” she adds.
Check out GuruWalk’s interactive map here and find the code to embed it
*Note: In the tab at the top of the interactive map you can change the country of origin to see how travellers move from different parts of the world. Once you’ve selected a country of origin, click on the names of the countries in the list below to see the most popular cities in each one among travellers from the selected country of origin.

Who is visiting the UK this summer
GuruWalk’s data also reveals the other side of summer tourism: who chooses the UK as their destination. Between 21 June and 22 September, nearly a third of travellers booking a free tour in the UK are Spanish, accounting for 30.9% of the total. This is the largest share globally, well ahead of the United States, which becomes the top non-European market with 10.6% of travellers, and the second largest overall.
The UK itself, meanwhile, ranks third with 9.4%, followed closely by Argentina, with 9.2%, and Italy, with 8.4%. Canada accounts for 4.3% of visitors, Germany 3.8%, Mexico 2.7%, Australia 2.3%, and the Netherlands rounds off the top 10 countries of origin for travellers set to visit the UK in the coming months, with 1.2%.

In total, GuruWalk has recorded travellers from 95 different countries who have already booked a free tour in the UK for this summer.
Methodology
Data on the destinations chosen by British travellers comes from actual free tour bookings made through GuruWalk for trips between 21 June and 22 September 2026, across 54 origin markets, 80 destination countries and 312 cities.
Data on the origin of travellers visiting the UK comes from active free tour bookings in the UK for the same period, extracted as of 14 July 2026.
As this is a snapshot taken before the end of summer, bookings for parts of July, August and September are expected to continue coming in over the coming weeks.