National statistics

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

Published 24 May 2019

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This publication is available at https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/immigration-statistics-year-ending-march-2019/why-do-people-come-to-the-uk-1-to-visit

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Data relate to the year ending March 2019 and all comparisons are with the year ending March 2018, unless indicated otherwise. A more detailed annual summary can be found in ‘Immigration statistics, year ending June 2018’.

This section contains data on:

  • Visitor-related Entry clearance visas
  • Visitor-related arrivals for non-European Economic Area (EEA) nationals

Further information on total numbers of arrivals to the UK is provided in the chapter on people coming to the UK.

1. Visitors to the UK

In the year ending March 2019, there were 2.6 million applications for Visitor visas, an increase of 9% on the previous year.

Over the same period, there were 2.3 million Visitor visas granted (including dependants), an increase of 9% to the highest level on record, following a general upward trend over the last 10 years. In the latest year, there were notable increases in Visitor visas granted to:

  • Chinese nationals, up 85,689 (16%) to 605,621
  • Indian nationals, up 52,816 (12%) to 492,544
  • Saudi nationals, up 19,714 (19%) to 121,921

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

In the year ending June 2018 (latest available arrivals data by purpose of journey), the number of non-EEA visitor arrivals increased by 3.5 million (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.

Additional information on visitors to the UK are published by the Office for National Statistics in their monthly Tourism statistics.

Figure 3: Visitor passenger arrivals2 and Visitor visas granted, year ending March 2010 to March 20191

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 q

Chart note:

  1. Changes in volumes of Visitor arrivals and Visitor visa applications and outcomes can be affected by several 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. Data on visitor passenger arrivals are available to year ending June 2018 only.

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 several reasons. A summary of what each dataset counts is provided below.

2.1 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).

2.2 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 was granted a visa more than once in a given period, this has been counted as multiple grants in the statistics. If an individual entered the UK multiple times within the period for which a visa was valid, this has been 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.

Several 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 affect the number of subsequent re-applications by Chinese nationals.

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’.

2.3 Landing cards

On 5 August 2017, the Home Office launched a consultation on a proposal to end the requirement for non-EEA passengers to present a paper landing card on arrival into the UK from 1 October 2017. The consultation set out the statistical implications of the change and how to respond to the consultation, which closed on 2 September 2017. The Government confirmed in the Spring Statement that to coincide with the ePassport gates expansion, the government will begin to abolish landing cards for non-EEA travellers, and on 20 May 2019, it removed the need for all non-EEA travellers to fill in landing cards upon arrival in the UK and expanded the use of ePassport gates to 7 more countries.

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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