The line graph depicts the expenditure of foreign visitors in the UK from 1980 and 2010 and the pie charts illustrate different reasons for their journey in 1980 and 2010.
Overall, the figures for money spent in the UK witnessed an upward tendency throughout the researched period. In addition, the most prevalent reason for tourists’ visits was for holidays.
As can be seen from the line graph, in 1980, over 8000 million pounds was spent in the UK by overseas visitors. From that time onwards, its figures experienced a considerable downfall to under 7000 million pounds after 2 years before a significant escalation of about 2500 million pounds in 1990. Despite a minimal drop to under 9 billion pounds after 3 years, there was an upsurge in the amount of money spent in 1996, reaching its peak of 12,000 million pounds. Following this trend was a gradual decline between 2000 and 2005 before another rebound to about 11,500 million pounds and afterwards ending at over 10,500 at the end of the period.
A close look at the pie charts reveals that in 1980, holidays were recorded as the leading figure for travel reasons in the UK, at 44,1%; however, a slight decrease of 5% after 30 years. Following this were business and visiting friends or relatives, with their figures being at 20,7% and 18,7% respectively in 1980. While the former only climbed to 22,8%, the latter surpassed it and escalated to 28,2% in 2010. In comparison, other reasons were 16,6%, which was nearly halved in 2010.