WHERE DO ALL THE TOURISTS GO?
Last year was a record breaker for international tourism numbers, according to the World Tourism Organisation. The (UNWTO) has released its “Tourism Highlights 2018 Edition”, showing how many people travelled last year, and where they went. Globally, international tourist arrivals grew by 7% from 2016 — for a total of 1.3 billion international trips — making it the highest year-on-year increase since 2010. France was the country with the most arrivals – 86.9 million visitors, with Spain in second place (81.8 million) and the US in Source: 123rf/profile_yurifineart third (75.9 million). China (60.7 million) and Italy (58.3 million) rounded out the top five.
The rest of the top 10 were Mexico (39.3 million), the UK (37.7), Turkey (37.6), Germany (37.5), and Thailand (35.4).
In total, 63 million people visited Africa, with some 10.285 million heading to South Africa where tourism receipts for the year amounted to $8.818 million.
Both Africa and Europe saw above average growth in arrival numbers, with North Africa doing particularly well compared to the previous year, which the report attributes to “a more stable environment”.
● See https://www.e-unwto.org.