International tourism is on the rise

According to WTO, international tourism has registered a 4 per cent growth, as 1.2b tourists have traveled the world last year.

The World Tourism Organization has recently released the latest figures indicating the number of people worldwide that have traveled for leisure or business in 2016.

The considerable growth represents the seventh consecutive year of worldwide tourism increase, as Asian travelers have dominated the market. Since 2009, when the financial crisis and swine flu have triggered a 4 per cent drop in the sector, the traveling rate has considerably improved. For example, Asians have traveled up to 8 per cent more than they did back in 2015.

When considering the most visited regions, Europe scored first in the top, followed by the Asia-Pacific area. Nevertheless, due to security concerns, Europe has lost a significant part of its visitors during the entire 2016. With a total of 620 million tourists past year, the UN organization has expressed its concerns regarding visitor transit in this area. According to WTO’s President, Taleb Rifai said the number of Europe visitors were very diverse, as some parts of the continent recorded “a double-digit growth rate and some others a flat rate.”

Meanwhile, American territory has received 4 per cent more travelers when compared to the precedent year and Africa has started its sector recovery after a very tense 2015, the WTO report shows.

As a conclusion, the World Tourism Organization has underlined that the tourism sector accounts for 10 per cent of global GDP, 7 per cent of the global trade market and 30 per cent of exports department respectively.