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Brighton is the most popular UK seaside destination for foreign tourists, according to new figures released by the Office for National Statistics (ONS).

Over 400,000 overseas visitors stayed at least one night in the East Sussex city in 2013.

After London, Edinburgh was the most popular UK city, closely followed by Manchester and Birmingham.

Riding the wave: Brighton was the only seaside resort to make it into the top 20 list

Last year saw the highest number of visits to the UK by overseas tourists and the highest recorded spending since the International Passenger Survey (IPS) began in 1961.

The IPS collects information about passengers entering and leaving the UK by carrying out interviews at all major airports and sea routes, Eurostar terminals and on Eurotunnel shuttle trains.

Trips to the UK by overseas visitors rose from 31.1 million in 2013 to a record high of 32.8 million in 2013.

The previous highest number of visits was 32.7 million, recorded in 2007.

The annual Travel Trends report revealed that a total of 1,303,000 people visited the Scottish capital last year, while 988,000 visited Manchester.

Birmingham benefited from the biggest increase in foreign visitors, growing from 713,000 in 2012 to 941,000 in 2013.

Brighton - which is famous for its pier and pebble beach - was the only seaside resort to make it into the top 20 list with 409,000 visitors.

Visits to the UK by American tourists were slightly down on 2012 (0.3 per cent) but they spent more when they were here (2.9 per cent).

French tourists made the most visits to the UK, followed by Germans and Americans.

Spending by foreign tourists rose by £2.4 billion (12.7 per cent) compared to 2012 to reach a record level of spending of £21 billion. An estimated £11.3 billion of this was spent on visits to London.

Capital spending: An estimated £11.3 billion was spent on visits to London in 2013

American tourists continue to have the highest average spend per day (£105) and they contributed £2.5 billion to the UK economy in 2013.

German tourists were the next highest spenders, followed by those from France.

And visits to London reached the highest level on record during 2013, with a total of 16.8 million visits, an increase of 8.6 per cent compared with 2012.

Visits to the capital have increased by 5.1 million since 2003 (43.5 per cent).

Boost for Brum: Birmingham received the largest increase in foreign visitors last year