Asia-Pacific registers world’s largest increase in tourism

In 2007, 184 million tourists visited the Asia-Pacific, making it the world’s second most-visited region according to the World Tourism Organization's (UNWTO) 2008 annual report. China continues to climb in the ranking of countries spending on international tourism and is currently fifth.

The document entitled Panorama of International Tourism states that global spending on international tourism reached $856 billion, of which $189 billion was spent in the Asia-Pacific region.

The Asia-Pacific recorded a 10% increase in tourist visits (184 million visits), second only to the Middle East. This confirms the view that "Macao remained in the lead for the second consecutive year (+21%)", but "Taiwan (+6%) and the Republic of Korea (+ 5%), dropped to below-average results." On the other hand, India increased by 12%, while Australia and New Zealand a mere 2%.

China moves up in rankings

According to the UNWTO, China, which obtained a 10% increase, "continues to strengthen its position as one of the world's best performing countries, in terms of both travelling outside China and visits to its tourism market." China placed fifth among most expensive tourism destinations, surpassing Japan, which remained seventh.

The first ten places were filled by Germany, USA, UK, France, China, Italy, Japan, Russia, Republic of Korea and Canada. However, only Japan registered negative growth
(-0.2%). This situation is significant since only ten years ago Japan was the third in international spending on tourism.

Tourism 2020 Vision

In this publication, the World Tourism Organization also released tourism estimates for 2020. The report predicts that international arrivals to Asia Pacific will reach approximately 397 million people, or more than double current arrivals.

Also, the UNWTO predicted annual growth rates above 5% for the Asia Pacific, Middle East and Africa, surpassing, by 2020, the current global average of 4.1%.