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MADRID, Spain – The rise in the number of international tourist arrivals slowed to 4.0 percent in 2019, its slowest rate since 2016 due to a cooling global economy, geopolitical tensions and uncertainty regarding Brexit, the World Tourism Organization said Monday, January 20.
The Madrid-based UN body, UNWTO, predicted global tourism will grow by 3.0-4.0% this year, buoyed by major sporting and cultural events such as the Tokyo Olympics in Japan.
The number of international tourist arrivals hit 1.5 billion last year, up from 1.4 billion in 2018, the body said in a statement.
Tourist numbers grew by 6.0% in 2018, 7.0% in 2017 and by 4.0% in 2016.
“The slowdown in linked to the results of the global economy, with economic growth of around 3.0%,” UNWTO’s market intelligence chief, Sandra Carvao, told a news conference.
She said “strong uncertainty around” Britain’s looming exit from the European Union, simmering geopolitical tensions and the collapse of Thomas Cook, the world’s oldest travel form, had also contributed to the slowdown.
But Carvao stressed that both 2017 and 2018 had posted exceptionally high rates of tourism growth.
“What is happening is we are returning to historical levels of tourism growth,” she said.
Europe and the Asia-Pacific region were the most affected by the slowdown in tourism arrivals.
Arrivals rose by 4.0% in Europe in 2019, down from 6.0% in 2018, while in Asia-Pacific arrivals rose by 5.0% compared to 7.0 percent in 2018 as ongoing protests in Hong Kong weighed the sector down.
Africa posted a 4.0% rise in tourist arrivals, down from 9.0% in 2018.
The Middle East was the one bright spot as tourist arrivals in the region jumped by 8.0% in 2018, up from 3.0% in the previous year, due mainly to Saudi Arabia’s ambitious plan to draw foreign visitors.
UNWTO expects France, Spain and the United States to once again be the three most visited countries in the world last year once it has final figures.
“We don’t really expect changes in the rankings,” said Carvao.
In 2018, France remained the world’s most visited nation with 89 million arrivals followed by Spain and the United States. – Rappler.com
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