Overseas visits to the UK have dropped sharply in the last three months, hitting tourism businesses already struggling to cope with a consumer slowdown and reflecting growing worries over the economic outlook in other European countries.

The Office for National Statistics said on Thursday that visits by overseas residents fell 5 per cent quarter on quarter, seasonally adjusted, in the three months to June. In the year to June visitor numbers were 3 per cent below the corresponding 2007 period.

The biggest drop has been in visits from North America, down 8 per cent on an annual basis. That is not surprising, as the slide in the dollar has cut Americans’ spending power abroad. But it is a blow to tour operators and retailers, since US visitors have tended to be the biggest spenders.

More alarming will be the recent, sudden drop in visits from the euro area – down 6 per cent in the three months to June against the same period in 2007 – even though the currency’s strength ought to make the UK a more attractive destination.

“People in Europe are now starting to get worried about their own economies,” said Stephen Dowd, chief executive of UKinbound, the industry organisation. He said long-haul tourism was already “struggling very badly”, but arrivals from France, Germany, Italy and Finland had all dropped in the last month or so.

The tourism data coincided with the release of figures showing the eurozone economy contracted last quarter for the first time since the single currency’s launch a decade ago.

Caution among eurozone holidaymakers comes at an especially bad time for the British hospitality industry, as UK households hit by higher food and energy costs rein in leisure spending.

There may be a silver lining for UK businesses, if British families choose to save money by holidaying at home this summer. But hotels and restaurants are the worst performing part of the UK’s service sector, according to the latest official data showing output contracted 1.2 per cent quarter on quarter in the three months to May.

UKinbound’s latest monthly survey gives little hope of visitor numbers recovering over the peak summer season. It found forward bookings were nearly 10 per cent lower than a year earlier in May, and 6.4 per cent lower in June.

“Tour operators are having to sell at a discount, and if you add inflation into that it’s ridiculous,” Mr Dowd said.

The only area from which arrivals are still growing strongly is eastern and central Europe, probably because of people visiting family and friends working in the UK.

VisitBritain, the tourism agency, said that arrivals from Russia had also fallen sharply, speculating that visitors who flocked to discover London in the last couple of years had moved on to the next fashionable destination.