International Tourism on the Rise

The latest UNWTO World Tourism Barometer indicates that:

•  International tourist arrivals continue sustained growth rate reaching 5.6%

•  610 million international tourist arrivals from January to August

•  32 million more arrivals already counted for 2007

International tourist arrivals for the first 8 months of 2007 point to a continuation of the sustained growth rate experienced over the past years. According to the latest UNWTO World Tourism Barometer, this trend is likely to continue through the remainder of 2007, with year-end growth estimated at 5.7%, which would put international arrivals to 880-900 million. 2007 is set to be the 4th year of growth above the long-term average of 4.1%

Regional trends

Emerging destinations in Asia and the Pacific, Africa and the Middle East have been the main growth drivers. Although well above their respective long term averages, the more mature regions of Europe and the Americas showed a more moderate pace. Asia and the Pacific are currently the star regional performers, recording an increase through August of 10%, ahead of the Middle East and Africa, both with +8%. Growth for both Europe and the Americas currently stands at +4% – slightly down on 2006's level in the case of Europe, but twice the rate of growth of last year for the Americas.

Outbound tourism - emerging markets stand out in international tourism expenditure

Travel expenditure figures continue on the rise, in line with the increase in international arrivals, with strong growth coming again from emerging markets: Brazil (+33%), Argentina (+24%), the Republic of Korea (+18%) and the Russian Federation (+16%) have recorded strong growth in spending. Of the top 5 outbound markets, Germany (+6%), the USA (+4%) and the UK (+4%) have recorded reasonable rises during the first six to eight months of 2007, while available data for France and Japan point to stagnation. Among the more mature source markets, Italy and Spain (7th and 12 th largest spenders, respectively) report the fastest growth so far this year at +9% each.

Global context

The continued growth in international tourism has been supported by a strong global economy expanding at around 5% for the 4th consecutive year. The world's emerging market and developing economies registered particularly strong GDP growth. The recent turbulence in the financial markets has not had any notable impact in tourism results so far. The preliminary 2007 results confirm the resilience of tourism demand regarding external factors, ranging from the turbulence in financial markets to security and health issues, rising fuel prices and increased taxation of air transport, inflationary risks and higher interest rates. However, these factors already started to weaken consumer confidence in some markets. This might spread wider and affect, at some point, the overall demand for international travel.