Skift Take
Nothing can go wrong in the UNWTO world. Everything's peachy. Though Japan numbers are borne out by other sources, other media sources (we have been documenting here) are reporting otherwise on Tunisia and Egypt, especially the latter.
International tourist arrivals worldwide grew by 5% in the first four months of 2012, despite remaining economic uncertainties in some of the major markets. The latest UNWTO World Tourism Barometer remains positive for the period May-August, the Northern Hemisphere’s summer peak season, with around 415 million tourists expected to travel abroad.
Other numbers:
— Between Jan-Apr 2012, international tourist arrivals (overnight visitors) worldwide totalled 285 million, 15 million more than in the same period of 2011 (+5%).
— Asia and the Pacific and Africa (both +8%), show the best results. Both regions saw a clear rebound in some of the destinations experiencing declines in 2011. In Asia and the Pacific, Japan’s inbound and outbound travel is on the mend, with arrivals to the country up by 40% in the first five months of 2012. In Africa, North Africa (+11%) returned to positive growth thanks to the results of Tunisia (+48% between January and May). The Middle East also shows signs of recovery with arrivals up by 1% between January and April 2012, and particularly promising results for Egypt (+29% between January and May).
— UNWTO forecasts international tourism to increase by 3% to 4% for the full year 2012. While the pace of growth is slowing down somewhat, international overnight visitors remain firmly on track to hit the milestone of one billion arrivals expected this year.
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