COMCEC Tourism Outlook-2019

International tourist arrivals in the Americas reached 216 million with a 2% growth led by

Mexico and US. America with the highest per tourist spending earned 334 billion and secure

23% of international tourism receipts from 15% share in arrivals. Middle –East also enjoyed 5%

growth in 2018 and hosted 60 million international arrivals, with earning 73 billion USD. Middle

East sheld 4% of the arrivals and 5% of the receipts from international tourism. Egypt, Jordan

and Lebanon performed well in 2018.

To analyze the tourism trends in these regions, it would be useful to compare the results of the

last decade. The figure below compares the shares of tourist arrivals by regions for the years

2000 and 2018.

Figure 3.3 Tourist Arrivals by Region (2000-2018)

Source: UNWTO, 2019a

The figure demonstrates that there is a tendency of increase in tourist arrivals in Asia-Pacific

Region and decrease in Europe and Americas Region.

According to Tourism Towards 2030, UNWTO’s long-term outlook and assessment of future

tourism trends, the number of international tourist arrivals is expected to increase by 3.3% a

year on average from 2010 to 2030. This represents some 43 million more international tourist

arrivals every year, reaching a total of 1.4 billion arrivals by 2020, 1.5 billion arrivals by 2023

and 1.8 billion by 2030.

International tourist arrivals in the emerging-economy destinations of Asia, Latin America,

Central and Eastern Europe, Eastern Mediterranean Europe, the Middle East, and Africa will

grow at double the pace (4.4 percent a year) of advanced-economy destinations (2.2 percent a

year). Emerging economies’ annual growth rate is 4,5% while arrivals to advanced economies

only grew by 3,5%. The market share of emerging economies increased from 30% in 1980 to

45% in 2017, and is expected to reach 58% by 2030, equivalent to over 1 billion international

tourists.

International Tourism Receipts

As an internationally traded service, inbound tourismhas become one of the world’s major trade

categories. International tourism accounts for 30% of the world’s export of services and 7% of

overall exports of goods and services. Tourism has been growing faster than global trade for the

past several years. International tourism receipts are the earnings generated in receiving

countries from expenditures of international visitors on accommodation, food and drink, local

Africa

4% America

19%

Asia/

Pacific

16%

Europe

57%

Middle

East

2000