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Over half of the world's tourists visit Europe
Many tourist boards have turned away from the European markets and have started focusing on Asian incoming tourists. Rightly so, as Asia is the fastest growing segment with an increase of 11 million trips abroad in China alone, but let's not forget that Europe was and is the largest market for outbound tourism within its own continent and beyond.
The UNWTO reports a significent growth in international tourist arrivals to all continents. Special attention goes out to the European arrivals which the UNWTO forecasts to grow by 3-4% in 2015, making it the most visited region in the world with an increase of 22 million arrivals in the past year.
Europe remains largest market
Despite the fact that Europe is the smallest continent it welcomed more than half of the world's international tourists with a total of 588 million in 2014. This increase is one of the major contributors to the European economic recovery. Northern and Mediterranean Europe were the most popular regions with a growth of 7%.
Global growth in tourist arrivals
Worldwide the UNWTO has recorded an increase of 4.7% (total of 1,138 million) tourist arrivals in 2014. This is the fifth consectutive year of above average growth. "Over the past years, tourism has proven to be a surprisingly strong and resilient economic activity and a fundamental contributor to the economic recovery by generating billions of dollars in expeorts and millions of jobs. This has been true for destinations all around the world, but particularly for Europe..." as stated by the The United Nations World Tourism Organization.
Source: UNWTO 27 Jan. 2015
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