Asian destinations on the rise in world tourism ranking
The latest data on international tourist arrivals to the various
destinations in the world collected by the World Tourism Organisation
showed significant changes in the table of the world's top tourism
destinations in 2004. As a result of the strong rebound experienced last
year, Asian destinations significantly strengthened their position in
the ranking.
Although the order of the three main world tourism destinations
remained unchanged with France as unchallenged leader, major
developments in 2004 included China taking over Italy's traditional
position as the world's fourth most visited destination, and the entry
of Hong Kong (China) among the top ten tourism destinations.
France maintains its leading position as the world's most visited
destination with 75.1 million tourist arrivals in 2004, or almost the
same level of 2003 (+ 0.1%). Spain, where tourist arrivals grew by
almost 5 per cent, ranks second with 53.6 million arrivals. It is
followed by the USA, with 46.1 million arrivals, showing a significant
recovery from the poor results of the past three years (+12% as compared
to 2003).
The most notable change in the ranking by international tourist
arrivals was China's move from 5th to the number fourth position,
trading places with Italy.
In 2004, China fully recovered from the setbacks caused by the SARS
outbreak and posted a spectacular 27 per cent increase, achieving an
all-time record of almost 42 million tourist arrivals, while tourist
arrivals to Italy declined by more than 6 per cent to a total of 37.1
million.
The United Kingdom maintained the 6th position with almost 28 million
arrivals in 2004 (+12%). Hong Kong (China) made a spectacular entrance
into the top ten taking over the 7th position after a 40 per cent jump
in arrivals in 2004 to almost 22 million. Mexico (20.6 million) and
Germany (20.1 million) kept the same positions as last year, while
Austria (19.4 million) fell back to the 10th position.
In 2004, the top 10 tourism destinations accounted jointly for more
than 363 million international tourist arrivals or almost half of the
760 million arrivals reported worldwide. |