The line graph delineates the changes in the number of foreign tourists who chose UK as destination for different rationales throughout a 20-year period starting from 1989.
Overall, there was an upward trend in the number of visitors across all three purposes over the given period, despite some fluctuations. In addition, holiday was consistently the most popular reason for visiting the UK, while the data for visitors came to meet friends and relatives showed the most significant growth over the two decades.
Looking at the initial figures in 1989, holiday was the most common purpose of travel with approximately 6.5 million visitors, closely followed by business trips at around 5 million. In contrast, meeting friends and relatives was considerably less popular, with only about 3.5 million visitors, which was roughly half of the number of holiday travellers and 1.5 million fewer than those travelling for business purposes.
Regarding the subsequent years, the number of holiday visitors rose sharply to reach a peak at about 9 million in 1994, and then decreased to around 6.5 million in 2004 before rising again to approximately 9 million by 2009. Meanwhile, business travel slightly dropped by nearly 1 million in 1994, then rose significantly to reach its peak at around 8 million in 2004 before decreasing marginally to about 7% by 2009. As for people visiting friends and relatives, this category reached approximately 7 million in 2004, and then slightly declined by roughly 1 million by the end of the period.