The bar chart illustrates the main reasons why tourists visited five UK cities — London, Edinburgh, Manchester, Birmingham, and Liverpool — in 2013. The categories are: holidays, business, visiting friends or relatives, and other purposes.
Overall, London and Edinburgh attracted the highest proportion of holiday visitors, whereas Birmingham received the largest number of business travellers. In contrast, visiting friends or relatives and miscellaneous purposes were less common reasons for travel across all cities.
In detail, just under 70% of visitors to Edinburgh came for holidays, making it the most popular holiday destination among the five cities. London followed closely, with around 50% visiting for leisure purposes. In contrast, Birmingham had the lowest holiday visitors, at approximately 15%, which is around one-third of London’s figure.
Regarding business travel, Birmingham led with 50% of visitors coming for work, which is five times more than Edinburgh, where only about 10% visited for business. Manchester also had a noticeable share, with around 25% business visitors. Liverpool had roughly equal percentages for business and other purposes, both standing at around 15%.
Visiting friends or relatives accounted for roughly 20%-25% of visitors in most cities, with Liverpool showing a slightly higher percentage in this category. The ‘other reasons’ category was consistently the least popular across all locations, particularly in Edinburgh, where it made up less than 5%.