The United Nations World Tourism Organization (WTO), on the eve of the opening of one of the world's largest travel fairs in Madrid - FITUR - announced that at the end of 2019 global tourism growth experienced a slowdown “due to a cooling global economy”. This trend particularly affected Europe and Asia due to uncertainties surrounding Brexit and protests in Hong Kong played a role.
The total number of international tourist arrivals at the end of last year amounted to 1.5 billion, which is 4% more than in 2018 - 1.4 billion people. This is the lowest figure since 2016. In 2018, the number of international arrivals in the world increased by 6%, in 2017 by 7%, which, according to experts, was associated with the return of tourists to Turkey and Egypt, after several years of disastrous years due to security reasons.
The Middle East was the only bright spot, as the number of tourists arriving in the region in 2019 increased by 8% compared to 3% in the previous year, mainly due to the implementation of the ambitious strategy of Saudi Arabia to attract foreign visitors and restore the Egyptian market.
The level of foreign tourism in the Asia-Pacific region was also above average — increase by 5%; the number of tourist arrivals in Europe and Africa increased by 4%. Moreiver, Europe, which received 51% of all international tourists or 743 million people in 2019, became the most visited region in the world. And, finally, America showed the smallest increase - by only 2%.
According to the UNWTO, it is expected that the trend of low growth rates will continue throughout the current year and will be about 3-4%. The growth will be facilitated by the planned major sporting and cultural events, such as the Tokyo Olympics in Japan. The organization’s general secretary Zurab Pololikashvili drew attention to the fact that "in these times of uncertainty and instability, tourism remains a reliable sector of the economy."
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