COMCEC Tourism Outlook 2017
10
Table 3.1 International Tourism Arrivals and Tourism Receipts
2000 2005 2010 2014 2015 2016
Number of tourists
(millions of people)
674 809 953 1.137 1.189 1.235
Annual change (percent) 8,1 5,9 6,5 4,0 4,5 3,9
Tourism receipts
(billion dollars)
495 701 961 1.252 1.196 1220
Annual change (percent) - - 11,7 4,6 -4,5 2.0
Source: World Tourism Organization
International tourism market has become characterized by wide geographical distribution and
continuous diversification of destinations. New destinations have been emerging in the
developing regions of Asia-Pacific, the Middle East and Africa and this rapid expansion of new
markets has increased the competition in the tourism sector.
While many destinations recorded an overall growth, results are more mixed than usual across
destinations. According to the UNWTO, growth rate in emerging economies (+2.7%) were below
the advanced economies (+4.9%), with Africa (+8%) showing the strongest results in 2016. In
2016, international tourist arrivals to advanced economies were 685 million, while it was 550
million for emerging economies.
Results across emerging economy destinations were uneven in a context of lower commodity
prices and weaker economic growth. In 2016, the economic scenario remained comparatively
volatile with growth gradually picking up in advanced economies contrasting with a slowdown
in emerging ones.
As displayed on Figure 3.2, the growth of international tourist arrivals in emerging economies
is greater than advanced economies for the years 2007-2012. However, since 2013, advanced
economy destinations showed relatively faster growth in tourist arrivals than emerging
economy destinations.