The line charts illustrate the shift in visitor volume to the UK from France and North America for holiday and business purposes, measured as millions of people.
Overall, it is readily apparent that business visits from North America remained higher than those from France, despite both experiencing substantial fluctuations. Notably, holiday travelling to the UK from both regions peaked in the middle of the year, with significantly more travellers from North America than from France in most periods.
Looking first at the holiday visits, the gap in tourist numbers from France and North America was generally narrowed with a slight increase under 1 million for both from January to March. Nevertheless, over the subsequent months, this disparity started to widen significantly, with the former rising to around 1.5 million from July to September while those from North America increased even more remarkably, peaking at 3 million, the highest value recorded in this graph. This growth from North America travellers, however, proved short-lived as the figure fell gradually thereafter to its relatively starting points between October and December, at approximately 0.75 million, while those from France also decreased, reaching roughly 1 million.
Turning next to the trips with business purpose, the number of travellers from both regions experienced a general upward trend but by varying degrees, with those from France remained below those of North America. From the first quarter to second quarter in a given period, visitors to the UK coming from both nations increased steadily, both reaching 0.3 million and 0.2 million, respectively, and then saw a noticeable dip to around 0.2 million and 0.2 million before rebounding to its previous increase. In the final months, this trend diverged, with visits from France declining to 0.15 million while those from North America rose to over 0.3 million.