The line chart illustrates how many foreign visitors who came to the UK for holidays, business, or to visit friends and relatives from 1989 to 2009.
In general, despite some fluctuations, there was an increase in the number of people visited to the UK in all purposes examined, with visit to friends or relatives witnessing the most dramatic rise of the period. In addition, Holiday generally had the highest throughout the studied period.
The number of people came to the UK for holidays in 1989 was about 6,5 million, reaching a peak of 9,8 million in 1999, but later dropped to 7 million 5 years later. Similarly, approximately 4 million people visited to friend or relatives in the UK in 1989, after which it experienced rise to over 6 million in 2004. In contrast, the number of people went to the UK for Business started at over 5 million in 1989, followed by a slight decrease to 4 million in 1994, but later increased to 7 million in 2004.
In 2009, Business visitors slight decrease from approximately 8 million to under 7 million people. A similar change, people visited to friends or relatives in 2009 also fell slowly to 6 million people. Meanwhile, the number of people for holiday in the UK gradual rise from 7,5 million in 2004 to approximately 9 million 5 years later.