The international tourism industry’s total export earnings totalled US$1.4 trillion in 2013, or US$3.8 billion per day.
According to the latest data from the UNWTO, revenues earned by destinations from international visitors grew by 5% to reach US$1.16trn, while an additional US$218bn was earned by the international passenger transport industry.
This revenue growth matched the increase in international tourist arrivals, which also climbed 5% to 1.09bn cross-border travellers in 2013, compared to 1.04bn in 2012.
“These are very positive results as growth in international tourists last year was equal to growth in income generated by over one billion tourists that travelled the world in 2013,” said UNWTO secretary-general, Taleb Rifai. “These results show that it is time to position tourism higher in the trade agenda so as to maximise its capacity to promote trade and regional integration,” he added.
International tourism now accounts for 6% of overall exports of goods and services. Compared to other sectors, tourism is now the fifth highest value global export industry, following fuels, chemicals, food and automotive products. It ranks first however, in many developing countries.
Asia Pacific (+8%) recorded the largest increase in receipts in 2013, followed by the Americas (+6%) and Europe (+4%). Among the top 10 tourism destinations by receipts, Asian destinations Thailand (+23%), Hong Kong and Macao (both +18%) saw strong growth, while the UK (+13%) and US (+11%) also posted double-digit growth.
Europe (US$489bn) now accounts for 42% of all international tourism receipts, followed by Asia Pacific (31%, US$359bn), the Americas (20%, US$229bn), Middle East (4%, US$47bn) and Africa (3%, US$34bn).
The emerging economies of China, Russia and Brazil accounted for some US$40bn of the total US$81bn increase in international tourism expenditure last year. China, which became the largest outbound market in 2012 with an expenditure of US$102bn, saw an further 26% increase in spending in 2014, to US$129bn. Russia became the fourth largest outbound market in 2013, following 25% growth to US$54bn. Brazil entered the top 10 source markets in terms of expenditure at 10th place, following a 13% increase to US$25bn.
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