The line chart illustrates how much money international tourists spent in the UK from 1980 to 2010,measured in millions of pounds, while the two pie charts compare the reasons for their visits in 1980 and 2010.
Overall, expenditure by overseas visitors in the UK showed an overall upward trend over the given period, despite some fluctuations. Between 1980 and 2010, the proportions of visits for business and visiting friends or relatives rose, whereas those for holidays and other reasons decreased. Notably, holidays remained the most common reason for visiting in both years.
Regarding tourist outlay, the figure increased overall, albeit with some variation throughout. It began at around £7,700 million in 1980 and then fell to under £7,500 million in around 1982. This spending climbed to above £9,000 million in 1985 and fluctuated in the following years before achieving its highest point of £12,000 million in 1996. However, expenditure from overseas visitors then recorded a downward trend to approximately £10,900 million, followed by further fluctuations until 2010, when it reached around £10,600 million.
Turning to the reasons for travelling, holidays consistently took the lion’s share in both years, despite a modest decrease from 44.1% to 39.1%. Other reasons followed a downward trend from 16.6% to 9.8%. By contrast, business accounted for 20.7% in 1980 and then this figure grew slightly to 22.8% in 2010. The most notable increase was seen in visiting friends or relatives, which rose by 9.5 percentage points and surpassed business to become the second-largest category in 2010.