Tourism’s growth continues to outpace global economic growth, bearing witness to its huge potential to deliver development opportunities across the world but also its sustainability challenges. The global economic slowdown, rising trade, geopolitical tensions and prolonged uncertainty around Brexit weighed on international tourism, which experienced a more moderate pace of growth during the summer peak season in the Northern Hemisphere (July-September). UNWTO Secretary-General Zurab Pololikashvili said, “As world leaders meet at the UN Climate Summit in Madrid to find concrete solutions to the climate emergency, the release of this latest World Tourism Barometer shows the growing power of tourism, a sector with the potential to drive the sustainability agenda forward. International tourism accounts for 29 per cent of the world’s services exports and 7 per cent of overall exports. The United States (+6 per cent) led growth in international tourism expenditure in absolute terms, supported by a strong dollar.

Source: The Guardian December 28, 2019 04:41 UTC