Japan entered the world’s top 10 destinations in terms of tourism earnings in 2017, among the highlights in UNWTO’s most recent report.
International tourist arrivals grew 7% in 2017, the highest increase since 2010, UNWTO’s Tourism Highlights shows. Growth in arrivals was mirrored by a strong increase in exports generated by tourism, which reached US$1.6 trillion in 2017, making tourism the world’s third-largest export sector.
Among the top markets and destinations in the world, Spain rose to become the world’s second most-visited destination in terms of international arrivals, after France.
In terms of tourism earnings, Japan entered the top 10 in 10th place after six straight years of double-digit growth. Meanwhile, Russia re-entered the top 10 of world spenders at eighth place.
The new Tourism Highlights report also illustrates that China continues to lead global outbound travel, having spent US$258 billion on international tourism in 2017. This is almost one-fifth of the world’s total tourism spending in 2017, which stood at US$1.3 trillion, some US$94 billion more than in 2016.
Available data for early 2018 has since confirmed international tourism’s continued strong growth, with a year-on-year increase of 6% in arrivals between January and April.
