According to its half-year results, a record 467 million tourists travelled across international borders in the first six months of 2012 – up five per cent year-on-year – and full-year arrivals are expected to break one billion. That’s one person in seven of the world’s population.
“Amid the current economic uncertainty, tourism is one of the few economic sectors in the world growing strongly,” said UNWTO Secretary-General, Taleb Rifai, at the opening of the Global Tourism Economy Forum in Macau.
The Asia-Pacific region (up by eight per cent) led the global growth, boosted by the recovery of Japanese tourism and other major source markets throughout the region. Destinations in South Asia and Southeast Asia (both up nine per cent) showed some of the best results worldwide.