Oxford is flying high in a national Tourism league table - despite not having an international airport.

Oxford: Flying high in the tourism tables An International Passenger Survey for the British Tourist Authority has found that the historic city attracted the sixth highest number of visitors from overseas last year.

London, Edinburgh, Manchester, Birmingham and Glasgow all got a higher number of overseas visitors than Oxford, but they all have one thing in common - a major airport catering for overseas passengers.

There were 390,000 visits recorded from overseas travellers coming to Oxford, compared with 500,000 to Birmingham, and 540,000 to Manchester.

But in the table, Oxford beat Cambridge, Bath, Bristol and York, which came seventh, joint eighth, and tenth.

The survey, which used data provided by the Office for National Statistics, does not take into account visitor movements inside the UK.

Last year, Oxford attracted a total of about five million visitors, and the city's tourism manager Jan Hull revealed that the industry is worth £250m a year to the city.

And she was delighted that Oxford had come so high up the league table, without a major airport. She said: "I think Oxford has done extremely well. Little Kidlington would be very hard pushed to compete with the likes of Heathrow and Gatwick, and yet we are next on the list. I am very pleased." Philippa Swain, of the British Tourist Authority, said: "This survey isn't, strictly speaking, about which town or city is the most popular because it doesn't take into account visitor movements in and around the UK. It only deals with international visitors. That includes business travellers, so places like Manchester and Birmingham score very highly because they have excellent conference facilities."

Manchester has seen a rise in popularity this year, moving from seventh to third in terms of popularity for overseas visitors.

While Oxford boasts its famous colleges, dreaming spires, and haute cuisine by celebrity chefs including Raymond Blanc, Manchester can offer two top-flight football clubs, the Gallagher brothers from Oasis, and the new Lowry museum in Salford. Tourism in Greater Manchester is worth £1.5bn a year.

Online travel agent ebookers.com interviewed 350 students at St Giles's College, London, and found Oxford and Cambridge were joint second most popular destinations for foreign students after London.