海外居民赴英目的Main purposes of overseas residents’ visit to the UK

The line graph illustrates the primary purposes for people to travel to the United Kingdom between 2000 and 2016. As can be seen, enjoying holidays, meeting friends and relatives, and business needs were the foremost reasons people from different countries went to the UK during the period, and the number grew over time. As the diagram suggests, more than 25 million people travelled to the UK in 2000. Among them, almost 10 million were holiday seekers, while roughly 7 million travelled for business purposes. Around 6 million travelled to the country to meet someone, while another 3 million went to the UK for numerous other purposes. Then 2 million holiday seekers were added to the list, and after a decade, nearly 12 million holiday seekers visited the UK. During this time, around 6 million businessmen and 8.5 million ordinary travellers reached the country to meet relatives or friends. It is interesting to notice that the total number in 2016 was almost 10 million higher than that of 2000, and the highest number of people in 2016 travelled to the United Kingdom to enjoy their vacations. Moreover, the number of people who went there to meet relatives or friends also grew significantly.