The line graph presents the amount of money spent by overseas visitors in the United Kingdom from 1980 to 2010, measured in millions of pounds, while the pie charts illustrate the different purposes for their visits in 1980 and 2010.
Overall, expenditure by overseas visitors fluctuated over the period, peaking around 1996. Meanwhile, business and visiting friends or relatives experienced an upward trend, whereas holidays and other reasons recorded a decline. Notably, holidays remained the most common reason in both years
Looking first at the line graph, overseas tourists spent approximately £8,000 million in 1980 , followed by a modest decline to below £7,500 million around 1983. After that, it increased sharply to more than £9,000 million in 1985 and oscillated in the following years. This figure then reached a peak of £12,000 million around 1996; however, this peak was short-lived, as the expenditure decreased to approximately £10,000 million about 2002. Subsequently, it rose to roughly £11,000 million around 2006, before ending at just over £10,500 million in the final year.
Turning to the reasons for visiting, business and visiting friends or relatives stood at 20.7% and 18.7% respectively, in 1980. Thereafter, the former grew to 22.8% in 2010, while the latter registered a more pronounced increase to 28.2%. Due to this growth, visiting friends or relatives overtook business and finished in second place. In contrast, although the proportion of visitors travelling for holidays fell by 5 percentage points from 44.1% in 1980 to 39.1% in 2010, it maintained its leading position. Similarly, other reasons also saw a downward trend from 16.6% to 9.8%, accounting for only a small proportion of the total.