Why do people come to the UK? (1) To visit
Published 25 May 2017
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This publication is available at https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/immigration-statistics-january-to-march-2017/why-do-people-come-to-the-uk-1-to-visit
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The next sections include statistics on the main reasons people come to the UK: to visit and for work, study, family reasons.
This section includes information on visitors to the UK. Visitor arrivals data for non-European Economic Area (EEA) nationals are based on landing cards completed as people cross the border. Visitor visa data relate to grants of visas applied for outside the UK. More information on non-visitor arrival and visa data by reason and nationality is included in the Why do people come to the UK? (2) To work topic, Why do people come to the UK? (3) To study topic and Why do people come to the UK? (4) For family reasons topic.
1. Key facts
In the year ending June 2016, 9.3 million non-EEA visitors arrived in the UK, the same level as the previous 12 months. The latest nationality breakdown available (2015) showed that over a quarter (29%) such arrivals were United States (US) nationals.
A number of nationalities, including US nationals, do not normally require a visa to visit the UK. Consequently the number of visitor visas granted is much lower than the total number of arrivals. Over 2.5 million visas were granted in the year ending March 2017 and, of these, almost 2 million (77%) were to visit.
There were 61,220 (3%) more Visitor visas granted in the year ending March 2017. There were notable increases in Visitor visas granted to Chinese nationals, up by 99,940 (25%) to 506,580 (excluding Hong Kong), and Indian nationals, up 20,662 (6%) to 393,929.
Long-term trends in visitor visa applications and grants
Chart notes
Source: Home Office, Immigration Statistics January to March 2017. Statistics on Visitor visas applications and Visitor visas granted in the year ending March 2017 can be found in Visas table vi 01 q (Visas volume 1). The number of visitor arrivals for 2016, by nationality, will be published in August 2017.