According to the latest World Tourism Barometer by UN Tourism, around 790 million tourists travelled internationally in the first seven months of 2024, about 11% more than in 2023 and only 4% less than in 2019. Thus, International tourism bounced back to 96% of pre-pandemic levels in the seven months through July 2024.
With increased air connectivity and visa facilitation supporting the recovery in international travel, the data shows all world regions have recorded a strong year so far.
- The Middle East remained the strongest-growing region in relative terms, with international arrivals climbing 26% above 2019 levels in the first seven months of 2024.
- Africa welcomed 7% more tourists than in the same months of 2019.
- Europe and the Americas recovered 99% and 97% of their pre-pandemic arrivals respectively during these seven months.
- Asia and the Pacific recorded 82% of its pre-pandemic tourist numbers (-18% versus 2019) reaching 85% in June and 86% in July.
Among the best performers through June or July 2024 were Albania (+128%) and Serbia (+126%) where receipts more than doubled (compared to the same period of 2019), followed by Tajikistan (+85%), Pakistan (+76%), Montenegro (+70%), North Macedonia (+60%) and Portugal (+57%). Strong results were also reported by Türkiye (+55%) and Colombia (+54%). Worth noting based on first quarter data, are Saudi Arabia (+207%) and El Salvador (+168%) which enjoyed extraordinary growth compared to Q1 2019.
Data on international tourism expenditure reveals strong demand for outbound travel in January-July 2024, especially from large source markets such as the United States (+32%), Germany (+38%), and the United Kingdom (+40% through March), compared to the same period of 2019. Strong outbound spending was also reported by Australia (+34%), Canada (+28%) and Italy (+26%), all through June 2024. Limited data for India shows an impressive surge in outbound spending, with 86% growth in Q1 2024 (versus Q1 2019).
The UN Tourism Confidence Index shows positive expectations for the last part of the year, at 120 points for September-December 2024, though below the prospects for May-August, which stood at 130 (on a scale of 0 to 200, where 100 reflects equal expected performance). Some 47% of the tourism experts participating in the Confidence survey expect better performance for the sector in the last four months of 2024, while 41% project similar performance and 11% worse. This reflects a gradual normalization of tourism performance after a strong 2023.
