York welcomed 8.8 million visitors in 2025, including 1.8 million staying visitors and 7.0 million day visitors. The city’s staying visitors generated 5.86 million visitor days, while hotels were the most-used accommodation type in the 2025 visitor survey.
Contents
- York hotel market scale and demand
- Where York hotel guests stay
- When visitors book and how long they stay
- York hotel guest spending
- Where York’s staying visitors come from
- What hotel guests do in York
- Experience, recommendation and repeat visits
York hotel market scale and demand
The STEAM Data 2025 estimate provides the broadest view of York’s visitor economy. York attracted 8.8 million visitors in 2025. Of that total, 1.8 million were staying visitors and 7.0 million were day visitors. These figures count different types of trips, so total visitor volume should not be read as a hotel-room total.
Visitor demand changed unevenly during the year. Total visitor volume was 6% below 2024 and 15% below 2019. Staying-visitor volume nevertheless rose 9% compared with 2024, while day-visitor volume fell 10%. For hotels, the increase in staying visitors is the more directly relevant movement, although the STEAM figures cover staying accommodation more broadly than hotels alone.
Visitors spent 12.87 million visitor days in York in 2025. Staying visitors accounted for 5.86 million of those visitor days. The difference reflects the much larger number of day visits, while the staying-visitor total captures the longer presence associated with overnight trips.
The YORK VISITOR SURVEY 2025 adds detail about the overnight market. Its accommodation percentages describe surveyed staying visitors, not every visitor to York and not a complete count of hotel rooms or available beds.
Where York hotel guests stay
Hotels accounted for 66% of accommodation used by surveyed staying visitors in the 2025 visitor survey. That made hotels the leading accommodation category by a wide margin. Self-catering represented 18%, while B&Bs, guesthouses, inns and pubs represented 7%. A further 6% stayed with friends or relatives.
The survey’s categories describe what respondents used for their York trip. They should not be treated as a measure of the number of properties in each category. In particular, the 66% hotel figure describes the accommodation choices of surveyed staying visitors during the survey period.
The STEAM estimates use a different classification and therefore should be read alongside the survey rather than substituted for it. In the 2025 STEAM estimates, serviced accommodation accounted for 51% of York’s staying visitors, non-serviced accommodation accounted for 35%, and staying with friends or relatives accounted for 14%.
The two sources also give different counts within their respective frameworks. The STEAM estimate put serviced-accommodation staying visitors at 0.95 million in 2025, up 2% on 2024. It put non-serviced-accommodation staying visitors at 0.65 million, up 25% on 2024. These are estimates for accommodation groupings and are not a direct estimate of hotel guests alone.
| Measure | 2025 figure | Scope |
|---|---|---|
| Hotel accommodation use | 66% | Surveyed staying visitors |
| Self-catering accommodation use | 18% | Surveyed staying visitors |
| Serviced accommodation | 51% | STEAM estimate of staying visitors |
| Non-serviced accommodation | 35% | STEAM estimate of staying visitors |
| Friends or relatives | 14% | STEAM estimate of staying visitors |
When visitors book and how long they stay
Advance planning was common among surveyed staying visitors. The 2025 survey recorded 85% booking their York accommodation in advance. The reported lead times were distributed across several windows:
- 7% booked less than a week before their York trip.
- 9% booked at least two weeks before the trip.
- 10% booked at least one month before the trip.
- 30% booked one to three months before the trip.
- 31% booked three to six months before the trip.
- 11% booked six to nine months before the trip.
- 2% booked nine to twelve months before the trip.
- 0% booked more than a year in advance, after rounding.
These percentages come from the 2025 survey and are subject to its wording and rounding. The overlapping wording of some booking windows means the figures should be retained as reported rather than combined into new totals.
Surveyed staying visitors spent an average of 2.7 nights in York. The average varied by accommodation type. Surveyed hotel guests stayed 2.4 nights, compared with 3.1 nights for guests in B&Bs, guesthouses, inns and pubs, and 3.5 nights for self-catering visitors. Those staying with friends or relatives stayed an average of 3.8 nights.
Origin was also associated with a different reported stay length. Domestic visitors stayed an average of 2.6 nights, while overseas visitors stayed an average of 3.1 nights. These averages describe survey respondents and should not be applied as a forecast for every future booking.
York hotel guest spending
Accommodation spending was higher for hotel guests than for the wider paid-accommodation group in the 2025 visitor survey. Hotel guests spent an average of £93 per person per night on accommodation. Across all paid-accommodation users, the average was £83 per person per night.
The comparison is a per-person, per-night accommodation measure. It is not a total hotel bill, a room-only average for every York property, or a forecast of a particular date’s price. It also does not describe spending on meals, attractions, transport or shopping.
The stay-length figures help put the accommodation measure in context. The survey recorded 2.4 average nights for hotel guests and 2.7 average nights for all surveyed staying visitors. Other accommodation groups recorded longer average stays: 3.1 nights for B&B, guesthouse, inn and pub guests; 3.5 nights for self-catering visitors; and 3.8 nights for visitors staying with friends or relatives.
The spending and stay-length results therefore point to two separate aspects of the York hotel market. Hotels were the most-used accommodation type among surveyed staying visitors, and their reported accommodation spend was £93 per person per night. Their average stay, at 2.4 nights, was shorter than the average reported for the other named accommodation groups.
Where York’s staying visitors come from
The 2025 visitor survey recorded a substantial international component: overseas visitors made up 28% of surveyed staying visitors. Domestic demand was spread across English regions and Scotland rather than concentrated in one single reported source.
| Origin of surveyed staying visitors | Share |
|---|---|
| Overseas | 28% |
| South East, including London | 22% |
| South West | 10% |
| West Midlands | 9% |
| North West | 8% |
| Scotland | 5% |
| East Midlands | 5% |
| North East | 2% |
| East of England | 2% |
The South East, including London, supplied 22% of surveyed staying visitors. The South West supplied 10%, the West Midlands 9%, and the North West 8%. Scotland and the East Midlands each supplied 5%. The North East and the East of England each supplied 2%.
These are visitor-origin shares from the 2025 survey. They indicate where surveyed staying visitors lived or travelled from according to the survey’s classifications; they are not hotel occupancy shares by nationality or a forecast of future demand.
What hotel guests do in York
York’s overnight visitors combined sightseeing, food and drink, shopping and general city exploration. In the 2025 survey, 98% of surveyed staying visitors strolled around York and enjoyed its ambience. That was the most widely reported activity in the set of measured experiences.
Food and drink featured strongly at both parts of the day. Some 96% ate or drank in a café, bar or restaurant before 5pm, and 94% did so after 5pm. The results measure reported participation among surveyed staying visitors, rather than spending totals or the number of visits to individual venues.
Attractions and shopping were also common. Some 92% visited museums or attractions, while 91% shopped in regular shops. A further 78% shopped in a market such as the Shambles or a themed market.
Together, these figures describe a visitor profile that extends beyond the hotel itself. A York hotel stay is often connected with walking through the city, eating and drinking, cultural attractions and retail activity. The survey does not establish how much each activity contributed to a guest’s total trip spending.
Experience, recommendation and repeat visits
The survey recorded strong satisfaction among surveyed staying visitors. Some 94% rated their overall York experience as very good or good in 2025. Recommendation intent was higher still: 99% said they were very or quite likely to recommend York.
Repeat visitation was also prominent. Some 76% of surveyed staying visitors were repeat visitors to York. Among repeat surveyed visitors, the average number of York trips in the previous 12 months, excluding the current trip, was 2.2.
These results describe the survey’s staying-visitor sample and its 2025 measurement period. They do not guarantee that every hotel guest will return or recommend the city, and the repeat-trip average should not be interpreted as the number of hotel bookings made by each visitor.
For readers comparing York hotels, the clearest statistical picture is therefore a market led by overnight demand within a much larger visitor economy: 1.8 million staying visitors in the 2025 STEAM estimate, hotels used by 66% of surveyed staying visitors, an average hotel stay of 2.4 nights, and average hotel accommodation spending of £93 per person per night in the visitor survey. The same survey found that most visitors planned ahead, most engaged with food, attractions or shopping, and a large majority had visited York before.