Kent has become a “destination of choice” for international visitors based on search results from online travel giant Expedia.

Hoilidaymakers in the US made nearly 35% more searches for Kent in the first three months of the year when looking for a break in July and August this year, compared to the same time in 2016.

Searches from Canada showed an increase of nearly 60% while overall searches from both international and domestic travellers grew by more than 10%.

The data shows visitors to Kent want to stay longer, up more than 5% year-on-year, with the amount they choose to spend on their room rising by nearly 5%.

The figures also showed that mobile searches for visits to the county rose more than 25% year-on-year.

Expedia’s director of market management for the UK & Ireland, Krishan Kadodwala, said: “Searches for Kent are showing encouraging signs of growth year-on-year, which is obviously great news for hoteliers and regional tourism.

“Kent’s famous towns of Canterbury and Rochester, the popular seaside resorts of Margate and Ramsgate, and the iconic White Cliffs of Dover, are no doubt helping fuel that rise.

“It’s also great to see increased interest from the US – a particularly valuable market that presents a tremendous opportunity for hoteliers and regional tourism in general, given they tend to book their trip further in advance, are much less likely to cancel, stay longer and spend more when here.”

"Kent’s famous towns of Canterbury and Rochester, the popular seaside resorts of Margate and Ramsgate, and the iconic White Cliffs of Dover, are no doubt helping fuel that rise..." - Krishan Kadodwala, Expedia

Visit Kent, which promotes tourism in the county, said it had seen a similar growth in US traffic on its website over the same period, helped in part by the weakening of the value of the pound since the EU referendum.

Operations director Jackie Westlake said: “We have enjoyed a fantastic start to the season thanks to the good weather, which always brings more people out and about and encourages visitors to get out of the city and come and explore the countryside, but also the wonderful towns and cities of Kent.

“To date, Brexit has not had an adverse effect on tourism in Kent.

“Following the referendum results, many Kent attractions and tourism businesses actually saw a rise in European visitors because of the weak pound – this was good news in the long run, it has meant more people who had perhaps not yet considered visiting Kent were convinced to make the trip and could see the wonderful things our region has to offer.

“We will watch travel numbers with interest in the coming months, and await early research results, but international visitors continue to choose Kent for their short breaks and we are always thrilled to welcome them.”