The line graph compares the number of visitors who visited the UK for different purposes between 1989 and 2009. Overall, holidays for tourists became increasingly more popular throughout the period. Despite the fluctuations, visitors with the purposes of business and meeting with friends and relatives remained the lowest.
Holidays was a more common reason for going to the UK among the purposes. In 1989, around 7 million of those had gone for holiday purposes, followed by a steady rise to roughly 9 million in 1994. The figure then smoothly declined to approximately 6.5 million visitors until 2004 before reaching its peak of around 9 million.
In contrast, the number of visitors whose purpose was business and meeting friends and relatives almost mirrored the pattern. The business purpose, starting with 5 million, saw a relatively stable growth to roughly 6.5 million in 1999 and reached its peak with a sharp 8 million visitors in 2006; the figure then exhibited a negligible decrease to 7 million visitors. While visitors whose purpose was meeting relatives and friends in 1989 showed around 3.5 million visitors, the figure had undergone a gradual lift to its peak of 7 million and saw a decrease to 6 million by the last year.