On the day US President Barak Obama visits the UK, VisitBritain has revealed that Americans are falling out of love with the UK as a holiday destination.

Although the US was the UK's biggest overseas market  from 1998 to 2007, it has since slipped to third place behind France and Germany. At the height of the US love affair with the UK - in 2000 - 4.1m American's visited Britain; last year there were less than 2.7m visits to the UK by US citizens.

However, the US remains the most important market for the UK as US visitors spend almost twice as much as the Germans, the second highest spenders, and boost the UK economy by £2.1bn a year. VisitBritain said it had made recapturing the US market a priority.

A four-year £100m marketing programme, taking advantage of last month's Royal Wedding, the Queen's Diamond Jubilee next year and the London 2012 Olympic Games, is expected to revitalise Britain's appeal, it said.

Feedback from VisitBritain’s travel industry panels in the US in early 2011 have been positive, with increased bookings, and more capacity on air routes to the UK, added the tourism body.

In general, perceptions of the ‘Britain Brand’ are consistently positive among potential US visitors, it said, but the UK is perceived as expensive, although not as pricey as France and Italy.

Director of strategy and communications at VisitBritain Patricia Yates said: “The challenge now is to rebuild visitor numbers to the high point of 2000.

"While just 33% of the US population have a passport, Americans who come to Britain once, tend to come again - over half of US holiday visitors to the UK are repeat visitors. We know that perceptions of Britain are consistently strong – we need to change those positive perceptions into a trip here.”

By Linsey McNeill, Travelmole, 2011