50
50

World Tourism at Seven-Year High

13 September 2017

UNWTO points to the recovery in Turkey, Tunisia and Egypt.

World tourism is headed for a bumper year, mainly driven by trips to the Middle East. In the first semester, 36 million more people travelled the world, an increase of 6% over the same period last year.

598 million tourists travelled between January and June, making the start of 2017 the best in 17 years. “The 6% increase over the previous year has exceeded the growth trend of recent years, which makes the period from January to June in the best semester since 2010,” the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) said Wednesday.

Boosting growth is an increase in the number of trips to all regions of the world, but particularly in the Middle East, where the number of tourists grew by 9%. Europe came in just behind with 8%, the same figure as Africa. Asia Pacific saw growth of 6% and the Americas closed the table with a 3% increase in the number of tourists.

The UNWTO reports that “there is strong growth in many destinations and a continuation of the recovery in others that have seen falls in previous years”.

The first half of the year represents only 46% of the total annual international arrivals. Prospects are also looking good for the second semester, which is three days longer and includes the northern hemisphere’s peak season.

“The tourism market is more dynamic and resilient,” said Taleb Rifai, Secretary General of the UNWTO, stressing that “the news includes substantial recoveries in some destinations that were affected by security problems last year.”

Rifai refers to destinations in the Mediterranean that have increased by 12%, on average, with the recovery in Turkey, Egypt and Tunisia. This recovery had already been mentioned by Ana Mendes Godinho, Secretary of State for Tourism, to Dinheiro Vivo, but is not impacting the increase in tourism in Portugal, which is expected to finish the year with 22 million tourists.

Original Story: Dinheiro Vivo – Ana Margarida Pinheiro

Translation: Richard Turner