Foreign visitors go to the UK for the cuisine and the clothing as much as the castles, according to a survey.

Overseas holidaymakers said eating in restaurants was the their top activity when going to the UK, the poll by the Visit-Britain organisation found.

The second most important activity was shopping for clothes and accessories, followed by visiting famous buildings and monuments.

The poll also found:

North East England – a greater proportion of foreign visitors went to the pub in this area than anywhere else in England;

North West England – the area where overseas tourists socialised with the locals the most;

London – where there was the highest proportion of overseas visitors going to see monuments and buildings;

Yorkshire – rural areas were the big attraction for foreign holidaymakers;

West Midlands – nine per cent of overseas tourists to this area went to the theatre, lured by Shakespeare’s Stratford-upon-Avon;

East Midlands – one in three visited the countryside, including the Peak District;

East England – foreign visitors were lured by the attractions of Cambridge and the Suffolk coastline;

South West England – one of the areas where sports activities were particularly popular for overseas visitors;

South East England – visitors in this area ranged further away from where they were staying than in any other area;

Scotland – more visits to the pub were made here by foreign tourists than anywhere else in Britain;

Wales – 37 per cent visited castles.

VisitBritain strategy and communications director Patricia Yates said: “This detailed report gives us a fascinating insight into exactly what attracted 30 million overseas visitors to Britain last year.

“It strongly suggests people mainly come to see our famous sights but enjoyed the experience of our shopping and the restaurants. This is particularly great to see in a year which saw our restaurants winning more Michelin stars in 2010 than at any other time in the 35-year history of the gastronomic award.

“It also shows different areas of Britain have strong individual identities as tourism destinations in their own right.”