LONDON, Oct. 11 (Xinhua) -- Britain attracted in July and August 590,000 overseas visitors who attended at least one ticketed Olympic or Paralympic event, official data showed Thursday.
Among them, 420,000 visited the country primarily for the Games, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS).
About 260,000 were European residents and 80,000 came from North America.
According to the ONS survey, visitors who came to the country for an Olympics-based purpose or attended a ticketed event spent 1,290 pounds (2,067 U.S. dollars) on average in the period, and those who came for other purposes spent 650 pounds on average.
The ONS figures were taken from interviews with people leaving Britain during the month of August and excluded visitors who did not leave the country until after the end of the month.
However, the ONS figures showed that the two sports events failed to give a boost to tourism in Britain, with the total overseas visits falling during the period.
"Overseas residents completed an estimated 3.0 million visits to Britain in August, 5 percent fewer than in August 2011," the ONS said.
Despite the fall in the number of visits, Britain's earnings from overseas visits, which included all London 2012 tickets bought before and during the visit, increased by 9 percent year on year.
Meanwhile, British residents made 7.3 million visits abroad in August, similar to the number a year earlier, said the ONS. (1 pound = 1.60 U.S. dollars)
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