The line graph below shows how many foreign people (in millions) travelled to the UK for different reasons (business, holiday, meeting friends and relatives) between 1989 abd 2009.
Overall, the number of overseas vision had an upward trend over the period, despite the purpose they came to the UK for. Besides, going for holiday was the most popular reason of people’s travel for the most part of the analysed period.
As for the purpose of holiday, it was by far the most common reason why people came to the UK, having around 6,5 million people in 1989. After remaining at the same level for the next 2 years, it then increased sharply, reaching its peak at 9 million people in about 1996. However, people started to visit the UK to have holidays less during the next 8 years, with its number falling down to about 6.5 million again, which made this reason top second for a short period of time. From then onwards, the figure increased substantially to 9 million, overtaking the number of people who went there for business.
Regarding the purposes related to business, it was ranked as the second most popular reason why overseas people travelled to the UK in 1989, having 5 million travellers. Then, people visited the UK for this reason less, dropping to 4 million in roughly 1992, which was equal the number of people who went there to meet with their friends and relatives at that year. After, the figure increased gradually untill about 2007, reaching its peak at 8 million people, and overtaking the leadership for about 5 years. However, the holiday reason became less popular in the last 2 years and had 7 million people, which was 2 million more compared to the beginning.
Turning to the people who visited the UK to meet with their friends or relatives, this category had the lowest number of people in 1989, comprising approximately 3.5 million people, which was almost twice as low as the numbers for the holiday reason. Although the figure was always ranked as the lowest, it showed a gradual increase, reaching its peak at 7 million people in about 2007. From then onwards, overseas visitors came to the UK for this purpose less, decreasing to 6 million by 2009, which was an almost two-fold increase compared to the beginning.