
International tourist arrivals worldwide grew by 5% in the first four months of 2012, despite remaining economic uncertainties in some of the major outbound markets.
According to the latest UNWTO World Tourism Barometer, prospects remain positive for the period of May through August, the Northern Hemisphere’s summer peak season, with around 415 million tourists expected to travel abroad.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.Japan, Egypt and Tunisia recoveringBetween January and April 2012, international tourist arrivals (overnight visitors) worldwide totaled 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 clearly 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).The Americas (+6%) recorded growth slightly above the world average, with solid results across almost all destinations. Europe (+4%) consolidated its record growth of 2011, despite continuing economic volatility in the Eurozone.May through August positiveUNWTO expects some 415 million tourists to travel internationally between May and August, the peak season in most of the world’s leading outbound markets and tourism destinations. In past years these four months represented 41% of the yearly total.Reservations for international air travel worldwide for May through August are 5% higher than in the same period last year. Reservations for air travel within the same region (+7%) are stronger than for air travel between regions (+4%). In general terms, growth is somewhat more moderate than in the first four months of 2012 (+7% globally).