Band 8+: The line graph shows how much money overseas visitors spent in the UK from 1980 - 2010 and the pie charts show the reasons for their visits in 1980 and 2010. Summarise the information by selecting and reporting the main features and make comparisons where relevant.

The line graph illustrates the annual amounts of money that overseas tourists spent in the UK throughout the 1980–2010 period, while the pie charts show the reasons reported by UK visitors in 1980 and 2010.

Overall, money expenditure increased, although it also accounted for some fluctuations within the time period. Moreover, the proportion of people visiting friends or relatives significantly grew by 2010, while other reasons experienced only minor changes.

Looking at the details, the maximum amount of money was spent by UK overseas visitors in approximately 1998 (12,000 million pounds). That was nearly twice as much as the lowest figures (around 7,200 million pounds) reported in 1985. The general expenditure increase within the period was 2,800 million pounds—from 8,000 in 1980 to 10,800 40 years later.

Notably, the percentage of visitors who stated that visiting friends or relatives was their main goal increased by 9.5% (from 18.7% to 28.2%). On the contrary, by 2010 there were 5% fewer holiday tourists, whereas business travel experienced a slight rise of 2.1%.