Global tourism is thriving! Over 17 million people visited Hungary

According to The World Tourism Organization, 1.4 billion tourists visited a foreign country in 2018, which is a 6% increase since 2017. (This number includes those individuals who visited more than one foreign country).

444.hu reports that there were 1.4 billion tourists in 2018 who visited a foreign country. But who can afford a trip abroad, and where do they prefer going?

“The World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) is the United Nations agency responsible for the promotion of responsible, sustainable and universally accessible tourism. It is the leading international organization in the field of tourism, which promotes tourism as a driver of economic growth, inclusive development and environmental sustainability.”

The thriving global tourism causes many problems for the locals. The most serious of them concerns the public transportation systems, which are often not prepared to deal with a sudden increase in passengers. Tourist destinations are often overcrowded, and the locals sometimes cannot even get to work or get home on time.

Booming tourism is often not comfortable for the locals, but it is definitely good for the economy: global tourism produced approximately 1.7 trillion dollars in 2018, which is a 2% increase since 2017.

Europe is still the most popular travel destination among tourists with 713 million visitors last year only. However, 80% of tourists choose travel destinations within their own region.

Globally, the top three tourist destinations are: France (87 million visitors), Spain, and a tie between the United States, China and Italy. The most up-and-coming destination last year was North-Africa, which had a 10% increase in visitors.

Hungary had 17.1 million visitors in 2018.

It is obvious that the richest nations have the highest amount of people who can afford to travel abroad. The vast majority of tourists are Chinese, which is mainly due to the country’s heavy economic growth and enrichment. Chinese tourists took 143 million trips abroad last year. The Chinese are followed by the Germans (87.8 million), and by the Brits (74.2 million).

Tourists love exotic destinations, but they definitely dislike:

• other tourists
• overcrowded spaces
• increasing real estate prices
• bachelor parties

Source: www.444.hu; www2.unwto.org