Global tourism hit a new record level in 2025 despite a dip in arrivals in North America due to “weak results” in the United States, UN Tourism said Tuesday.<\/p>\n
The number of international tourist arrivals recorded worldwide hit 1.52 billion in 2025, 4.0 percent higher than the figure in the previous year, the Madrid-based body said in a statement.<\/p>\n
But arrivals in North America fell 1.4 percent to 135.4 million last year with the body saying this was “partly due to weak results in the United States.”<\/p>\n
UN Tourism did not provide arrival figures for the United States or explain the country\u2019s poor results in its report.<\/p>\n
The weakness comes as US President Donald Trump has adopted foreign policy positions such as threatening to annex Canada and Greenland that have put off some potential visitors.<\/p>\n
His government has also tightened curbs on entering the United States as part of a sweeping crackdown on migration, and announced plans to order foreign tourists to disclose their social media histories.<\/p>\n
– ‘Positive trend’ –<\/p>\n
Europe, the world’s most popular destination region, recorded 793 million international arrivals in 2025, a 4.0 percent increase over the previous year and 6.0 percent above 2019, the year before the pandemic paralysed travel.<\/p>\n
Africa saw an 8.0 percent rise in arrivals in 2025 to 81 million, with Morocco and Tunisia posting particularly strong results.<\/p>\n
International arrivals grew by 6.0 percent in Asia and Pacific to reach 331 million in 2025, some 91 percent of pre-pandemic levels.<\/p>\n
The rise in arrivals was fueled in part by increased international air capacity, visa facilitation in many nations and “robust” demand from key tourism markets.<\/p>\n
Receipts from global tourism reached $1.9 trillion in 2025, a 5.0 percent increase from the previous year.<\/p>\n
“Demand for travel remained high throughout 2025, despite high inflation in tourism services and uncertainty from geopolitical tensions,” UN Tourism secretary general Shaikha Alnuwais said in the statement.<\/p>\n
“We expect this positive trend to continue into 2026 as he global economy is expected to remain steady and destinations still lagging behind pre pandemic levels fully recover.”<\/p>\n
The UN body said the Winter Olympics in Italy and the World Cup hosted jointly by the United States, Canada and Mexico will help drive international tourism in 2026.<\/p>\n
But it warned that “geopolitical tensions and ongoing conflicts continue to pose significant risks for tourism in 2026.”<\/p>\n
– Overtourism backlash –<\/p>\n
“A sector so closely tied to international mobility is particularly vulnerable to health, geopolitical, or climate crises,” Rafael Pampillon, a professor of economics at IE Business School in Madrid, told AFP.<\/p>\n
The usual big tourism players were not the only ones with rising tourist numbers last year.<\/p>\n
Bhutan experienced a 30 percent increase in foreign tourists.<\/p>\n
The tiny Himalayan kingdom wedged between India and China, noted for scenic natural beauty and ancient Buddhist culture, has improved flight connections recently.<\/p>\n
Other destinations which celebrated a double digit rise in international arrivals included Curacao, a small Caribbean island that is part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands,\u00a0and Sri Lanka.<\/p>\n
The rise in visitor numbers since the pandemic has sparked a backlash in many tourism hotspots, prompting the authorities to take steps to ease the pressure on bursting beaches and gridlocked streets.<\/p>\n
Japan has introduced an entry fee and a daily cap on the number of hikers climbing Mount Fuji.<\/p>\n
A barrier was briefly erected outside a convenience store in 2024 to stop people from standing in the road to photograph a view of the snow-capped volcano that had gone viral.<\/p>\n
Rome will charge tourists a two-euro entry fee from February to get close to the Trevi Fountain, a Baroque masterpiece located in a public square.<\/p>\n
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