International tourism grew by 5% in the first nine months of the year with strong results from Europe and the Asia/Pacific region, according to the latest UNWTO World Tourism Barometer.
The number of international tourist arrivals reported by destinations around the world increased by some 41 million between January and September, above UNWTO’s initial forecast.
International tourist arrivals grew by 5% in the first nine months of the year to reach a record 845 million worldwide, an estimated 41 million more than in the same period of 2012.
The growth was driven by Europe and Asia and the Pacific, both seeing tourist numbers increase by 6%.
UNWTO secretary general Taleb Rifai said: “International tourism continues to grow above expectations, supporting economic growth in both advanced and emerging economies and bringing much needed support to job creation, GDP and the balance of payments of many destinations.
“It is particularly encouraging to see the strong results in many European destinations, where the tourism sector is, undoubtedly, one of the engines of the economic recovery”.
International tourist arrivals to Europe grew by 6% led by above-average results in Central and Eastern Europe (+7%) and Southern and Mediterranean Europe (+6%). This growth exceeds the initial forecast for 2013 and is double the average growth rate of international tourism in Europe since 2000 (+2.7% a year between 2000 and 2012).
Asia and the Pacific (+6%) continued to show robust results, bolstered by South-East Asia (+12%).
But the Americas (+3%) reported comparatively weaker results, with better performance in North America (+4%) and Central America (+3%).
In Africa (+5%) growth was fuelled by the recovery in North Africa (+6%), while the Middle East saw only a marginal increase (+0.3%).
The positive trend registered in international tourist arrivals is reflected in international tourism receipts reported by destinations worldwide for the first six to ten months of the year.
Among the 25 largest international tourism earners, receipts saw double-digit growth in ten destinations – the US (+11%), Macao (+10%), the UK (+18%), Thailand (+28%), Hong Kong (+21%), Turkey (+13%), India (+13%), Japan (+23%), Greece (+15%) and Taiwan (+12%).
Among the top ten source markets, the Russian Federation led growth, with expenditure on trips abroad up by 29% in the first nine months of the year.
China, which became the top source market in the world last year ($102 billion), also saw rapid growth, posting a 22% increase in expenditure on outbound tourism.
Outbound expenditure from other BRIC economies was also strong including Brazil (+15%).
The performance of advanced economy source markets was comparatively weaker. Canada (+3%), the United States (+2%), the UK (+2%) and France (+2%) grew moderately, while Germany reported zero growth and Japan, Australia and Italy saw declines in expenditure.