The graph illustrates the number of Tourists visited the UK for three main purposes: holidays, business, and visiting friends and relatives between 1989 and 2009.
Overall, The tourists had a 3 purposes for business, holiday and meeting with friends and relatives. Holidays had the highest result throughout the period, while meeting with friends and business purposes consistently recorded the same results.
In 1989, around 7 million people visited UK for holidays. This number rose sharply to approximately 9 million by 1994 but it started to drop to 6 million between 1994 and 2004. In contrast, in 1989, people who came for visiting friends and relatives slightly increased to 7 million till 2004 and then slightly decreased around 6 million at 2009.
Visitors who went to the UK for business purposes were approximately 5 million at 1989 and then it declined slightly to 4 million by 1994 but starting with 1994 the number of tourist who came for business purposes increased steadily until 2004.