International tourism set a new record last year, according to the United Nations' World Tourism Organization (UNWTO). Released today, UNWTO's latest "UNWTO World Tourism Barometer" shows a 4.7 percent increase in international tourist arrivals worldwide, with destinations around the globe welcoming a record 1.1 billion overnight visitors in 2014, which is 51 million more than in 2013.
"Over the past years, tourism has proven to be a surprisingly strong and resilient economic activity and a fundamental contributor to the economic recovery by generating billions of dollars in exports and creating millions of jobs," said UNWTO Secretary-General Taleb Rifai. "This has been true for destinations all around the world, but particularly for Europe, as the region struggles to consolidate its way out of one of the worst economic periods in its history."
Indeed, most of the year's new international arrivals were in Europe, which reported an additional 22 million international tourists in 2014; its total of 588 million international tourists was up 4 percent from 2013, led by growth in Northern Europe and in Southern and Mediterranean Europe, both of which saw growth of 7 percent last year.
Overall, growth was strongest in the Americas, which reported 7 percent growth and a total of 263 million international arrivals. Specifically, North America reported 8 percent growth, Mexico double-digit growth, the Caribbean 7 percent growth, and Central and South America 6 percent growth each.
Based on last year's strong results, UNWTO forecasts additional growth of 3 to 4 percent in 2015.
"We expect demand to continue growing in 2015 as the global economic situation improves even though there are still plenty of challenges ahead," Rifai concluded. "On the positive side, oil prices have declined to a level not seen since 2009. This will lower transport costs and boost economic growth by lifting purchasing power and private demand in oil importing economies. Yet, it could also negatively impact some of the oil exporting countries which have emerged as strong tourism source markets."
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