Accredited official statistics

Why do people come to the UK? (1) To visit

Published 28 February 2019

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This publication is available at https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/immigration-statistics-year-ending-december-2018/why-do-people-come-to-the-uk-1-to-visit

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Data relate to the year ending December 2018 and all comparisons are with the year ending December 2017, unless indicated otherwise.

This section contains data on:

  • Visitor-related Entry clearance visas
  • Visitor-related arrivals for non-EEA nationals

The Home Office provides a more detailed commentary on an annual basis. The latest detailed annual commentary is included in ‘Immigration statistics, year ending June 2018’.

1. Immigration to visit the UK

In 2018, there were 2.6 million applications for Visitor visas, an increase of 8% on the previous year.

Over the same period, there were 2.2 million Visitor visas granted (including dependants), an increase of 7% to the highest level on record, following a general upward trend over the last 10 years. In 2018, there were notable increases in Visitor visas granted to:

  • Chinese nationals, up 56,095 (or 11%) to 587,986
  • Indian nationals, up 43,771 (or 10%) to 477,560
  • Saudi nationals, up 17,719 (or 17%) to 122,172
  • Pakistani nationals, up 10,385 (or 18%) to 66,603

Chinese and Indian nationals together accounted for just under half (48%) of all Visitor visas granted.

In the year ending June 2018 (latest available data by purpose of journey), the number of non-EEA visitor arrivals increased by 3.5 million (or 31%) to 14.8 million. This was the highest number of arrivals on record, following a general upward trend since 2009. Data for 2017 show US nationals accounted for 29% of all non-EEA visitor arrivals. Many 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 visitor arrivals.

Figure 3: Visitor passenger arrivals and Visitor visas granted, 2009 to 20181

The chart shows Visitor passenger arrivals and Visitor visas granted over the last 10 years.

Sources:

Entry clearance visas table vi 01 q (volume 1) and Admission table ad 02

Chart note:

  1. Changes in volumes of Visitor arrivals and Visitor visa applications and outcomes can be affected by a number of factors. More information can be found in ‘Policy and legislative changes affecting migration to the UK: timeline’ and the User guide to Home Office Immigration Statistics.

2. About these statistics

The statistics in this section provide an indication of the number of people who enter the UK.

The data do not show whether, or when, an individual arrived in the UK, what they did on arrival to the UK, or how long they stayed in the UK.

Entry clearance visas for visit reasons typically allow an individual to stay in the UK for a period of up to 6 months. Many non-EEA nationalities, including US nationals, do not normally require a visa to visit the UK. As a result, they will be counted in the passenger arrivals data, but not in the visa data so the number of Visitor visas granted is much lower than the total number of visit arrivals. A list of designated nationalities referred to as ‘visa nationals’ who do require a visa in order to visit the UK can be found in Immigration Rules Appendix V: visitor rules.

EEA and Swiss nationals do not require a visa to come to the UK for any reason.

Data on passenger arrivals are not directly comparable with data on Entry clearance visas granted for a number of reasons. A summary of what each dataset counts is provided below.

Passenger arrivals

Data on passenger arrivals in this section relate to the number of non-EEA arrivals into the UK for visit reasons.

Passenger arrivals are counted each time an individual enters the UK. Where an individual enters the UK more than once in a period, they will be counted each time they enter (but if they arrive each time on the same visa, they will be counted once in the visas data).

Visitor arrivals data are currently based on landing cards completed as people cross the border. In light of the introduction of new digital systems at the border, the use of landing cards is currently being reviewed. See the Home Office’s Response to media reporting on landing cards for more information.

Entry clearance visas

Data on Entry clearance visas in this section refer to the number of Visitor visas granted within the period. If an individual is granted a visa more than once in a given period, this will be counted as multiple grants in the statistics. If an individual enters the UK multiple times within the period for which a visa is valid, this will be counted as one grant in the visa statistics (but multiple arrivals in the passenger arrivals data).

Year-on-year comparisons of the number of decisions can be affected by quarterly fluctuations in the data. Such fluctuations can be examined in more detail in the quarterly data that are available in the published tables.

A number of known factors may have affected the number of applications and outcomes of visit-related visas over time. For example, the Home Office launched a two-year Chinese visa pilot in January 2016 for Chinese nationals. The increase in longer-term Visitor visas may have an effect on the number of subsequent re-applications by Chinese nationals. Another example is Kuwaiti visitors, who were able to visit the UK without a visa from February 2016 as part of the Electronic Visa Waiver scheme, which accounts for the large decreases in Visitor grants for Kuwaiti nationals seen since.

More information on non-visitor arrival and visa data by category is included in ʻWhy do people come to the UK? (2) To work’, ʻWhy do people come to the UK? (3) To study’ and ʻWhy do people come to the UK? (4) For family reasons’.

3. Data tables

Data on Visit visas and passenger arrivals can be found in the following tables:

We welcome your feedback

If you have any comments, or suggestions for the development of this report, please provide feedback by emailing MigrationStatsEnquiries@homeoffice.gov.uk. Please include the words ‘PUBLICATION FEEDBACK’ in the subject of your email.

See section 7 of the ‘About this release’ section for more details.

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