The line graph below illustrates the percentage of foreigners who visited the UK for business, holidays and meeting friends and relatives from 1989 to 2009.
Overall, It is clear that the maximum people visited the UK for spending their vacations. Also, the number of visitors who came for business and meeting friends and family rose, while the number of people came for holidays fluctuated.
In 1989, around6.5 million international visitors came for holidays, whereas, 5 million and 3.5 million people came for business and meeting friends and family respectively. From 1989 to 2002, the number of visitors who came for business and meeting friends and family increased and stood at around 7 and around 6 million respectively. By contrast, the number of international visitors came for holidays increased and reached a peak of 9 million in 1996, but after that their number fell and again stood at 6.5 million in 2002.
After 2002, the holiday visitors rose again and finally, stood at 9 million in 2011. The number of people who came for business and meeting friends and family first increased till 2009, after that their number decreased. In 2011, the number was 7 million for business visitors and 6 million for visitors who came for meeting friends and relatives.
