International tourist arrivals grew by 5% in the first half of 2013, compared with 2012, underlining a robust tourism market despite economic challenges in some markets. Southeast Asia and Central & Eastern Europe were both regions that saw the biggest inclines in terms of popularity.
Arrivals were up by 12% in southeast Asia and 10% in Central & Eastern Europe.
China led the pack in terms of the country notching up the highest expenditure on tourism, up by a massive 31%, followed by Russia, up 22%.
Expenditure from what the UN’s World Tourism Organisation (WTO) calls “traditional markets”, such as the UK, USA and Germany, in comparison was described as flat, and negative growth figures posted from Japan, Australia and Italy.
The WTO has released the half-year figures in an Advance Edition of the UNWTO World Tourism Barometer, released on the occasion of the UNWTO 20th General Assembly.
This annual barometer of tourism trends is very insightful, underlining travel trends, motivations and regional facts and figures.
Its Tourism Highlights of 2012 underlined, for example, that the market share of tourism arrivals of emerging economies has risen from 30% in 1980 to 47% in 2012, expected to reach 57% by 2030.
And in 2012, 27% of all tourists travelled abroad to visit friends or relatives; this indicates the importance of family visiting international students within tourism.
In 2012, 27% of all tourists travelled abroad to visit friends or relatives
“The fact that international tourism grew above expectations [to mid-2013] confirms that travelling is now part of consumer patterns for an increasing number of people in both emerging and advanced economies” said UNWTO Secretary-General, Taleb Rifai.
“This underlines the need to rightly place tourism as one of the key pillars of socio-economic development, being a leading contributor to economic growth, exports and jobs.”
