Travel retail specialists have reasons to rejoice. Global tourism fully recovered from the Covid-19 pandemic in 2024 with 1.4 billion international tourist arrivals recorded worldwide due to “robust” demand from key markets, UN Tourism said on Monday, January 20.
“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 Madrid-based body said in a statement.
The number of international tourist arrivals last year was 11 percent higher than the 1.3 billion recorded in 2023, reaching the level seen in 2019, the year before the pandemic paralysed travel.
“In 2024, global tourism completed its recovery from the pandemic and, in many places, tourist arrival and especially earnings are already higher than in 2019,” UN Tourism secretary general Zurab Pololikashvili said.
“Growth is expected to continue throughout 2025, driven by strong demand contributing to the socio-economic development of both mature and emerging destinations,” he added.
Europe, the world’s most popular destination region, recorded 747 million international arrivals in 2024, a five-percent increase over the previous year and one percent above 2019 levels.
All European regions surpassed pre-pandemic levels except Central and Eastern Europe “where many destinations are still suffering from the lingering effects of the Russian aggression on Ukraine”, the statement said.
While international arrivals grew by 33 percent in Asia and the Pacific to reach 316 million in 2024, arrivals numbers in that region were still just 87 percent of pre-pandemic levels.
Several destinations reported double-digit growth in international arrivals when compared to 2019, such as El Salvador which posted an 81-percent increase, and Morocco which recorded a 35-percent jump.
