The table compares the number of students and tourists (in thousands) who travelled to six countries in 1975 and 1995.
Overall, tourist numbers were higher than student numbers in nearly every country in both years. Taiwan, China and the USA saw the largest student inflows by 1995, while tourist figures stayed stable in most destinations.
Looking at students first, the UK (300,000) and China (650,000) recorded exactly the same figures in both years. In contrast, the USA experienced a sharp rise from 250,000 to 550,000, and Taiwan climbed from 540,000 to 790,000. Singapore’s student numbers more than tripled, from 125,000 to 430,000, while Indonesia’s rose fivefold, from only 20,000 to 105,000, though it remained the lowest.
Regarding tourists, the UK (650,000), the USA (300,000) and China (825,000) showed no change over the two decades, and Taiwan also stayed at 700,000. Singapore’s figure rose slightly from 415,000 to 445,000, whereas Indonesia was the only country to see a decline, falling from 225,000 to 195,000.
Notably, the USA was the only country where student visitors outnumbered tourists in 1995 (550,000 against 300,000), and in Singapore the two groups were almost equal by that year.