It's official: Tourism figures back to pre-pandemic levels

 

Global tourism figures are back to where they were pre-Covid, the UN Tourism organisation has declared.

With 1.4 billion international tourist arrivals recorded globally, 2024 marked the recovery of international tourism from the worst crisis in the sector’s history.

A majority of destinations welcomed more international tourists in 2024 than they did before the pandemic, while visitor spending also continued to grow strongly.

The latest World Tourism Barometer from UN Tourism says an estimated 1.4 billion tourists travelled internationally in 2024, indicating a virtual recovery (99%) of pre-pandemic levels.

This represents an increase of 11% over 2023, or 140 million more international tourist arrivals, with results driven by strong post-pandemic demand, robust performance from large source markets and the ongoing recovery of destinations in Asia and the Pacific.

Growth is expected to continue throughout 2025.

The Middle East (95 million arrivals) remained the strongest-performing region when compared to 2019, with international arrivals 32% above pre-pandemic levels in 2024, although only 1% higher compared to 2023.

Asia and the Pacific (316 million) continued to experience a rapid recovery in 2024, though arrival numbers were still at 87% of pre-pandemic levels, an improvement from 66% at the end of 2023.

"In 2024, global tourism completed its recovery from the pandemic and, in many places, tourist arrivals and specially earnings are already higher than in 2019," said UN Tourism secretary general Zurab Pololikashvili.

"Growth is expected to continue throughout 2025, driven by strong demand contributing to the socio-economic development of both mature and emerging destinations. 

"This recalls our immense responsibility as a sector to accelerate transformation, placing people and planet at the centre of the development of tourism."

Among the world's top five tourism earners, the United Kingdom (+40%), Spain (+36%), France (+27%) and Italy (+23%) saw robust growth in the first nine to eleven months of 2024, compared to 2019.