The given line chart compares the total number of people who visited the UK for business, holidays, and visiting family and friends purposes from 1989 to 2009, in millions.
Overall, the total number of visitors showed an upward trend. Furthermore, the rank of visitors’ purposes remained unchanged at the end of the period, with travel, work and family gatherings in first, second, and third place, respectively.
Regarding the visitors’ purpose that dominated the total number of visitors, in 1989, holidays in the UK attracted nearly 7 millions tourists, then reached a peak at 9 millions in 1994. After that, its attractions witnessed a slight reduction to lower than 7 millions in 2004. However, this industry recovered rapidly to 9 millions at the end of the period.
As for the other purposes of visiting the UK, in 1989, 3 millions visitors came to gather family and friends and 5 millions people went to the UK to work. In the next 5 years, the UK business field experienced a gradual decline of 1 million, being surpassed by the number of people who came to meet relatives. Nonetheless, it increased dramatically to 8 millions in 2004 before dropping to7 millions in 2009. A similar pattern could be seen in the trend of people visited relatives, which rose significantly to nearly 7 millions in 2004 before experiencing a decline of 1 million in 2009.