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The United States is on track to achieve its best ever year in terms of the number of tourists visiting from the UK, according to new figures.

Statistics released by the Visit USA Association show that there were 343,000 arrivals in the United States from the UK in May this year, which was an 11% increase on 2007.

In the first five months of 2008, nearly 1.8m UK tourists visited America, 8.2% more than last year.

These figures, as well as confirming the United States as the UK's favourite long-haul destination, indicate that 2008 could be the biggest year ever for UK-USA arrivals.

Peter Moss, chairman of the Visit USA Association, said: 'The early booking signs pointed towards 2008 becoming a very good year for travel to the USA – and these latest UK-USA arrival statistics have now confirmed that forecast.

'January to April started to reflect this growth trend and now the May numbers really do support the fact that 2008 may well go on to become the biggest year ever for UK travel to the USA – possibly as high as 5m visitors.'

Mr Moss said that the favourable exchange rate for visitors to America has had 'a big impact' on visitor numbers.

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