INTERNATIONAL. Last year saw international tourist arrivals rise +4% to an estimated 1.52 billion, underscoring the resilience of global travel demand and a return to pre-pandemic growth patterns, according to the year’s first UN Tourism World Tourism Barometer.
The total represents almost 60 million more international overnight visitors than in 2024 and brings global tourism closer to the long-term average annual growth rate of around +5% recorded between 2009 and 2019.
Performance was supported by strong demand from major source markets, the continued recovery of destinations in the Asia Pacific region, improved air connectivity and wider visa facilitation, UN Tourism highlighted.
Europe remained the world’s largest destination region, welcoming 793 million international tourists in 2025, up +4% year-on-year and +6% above 2019 levels.
Western Europe (+5%) and Southern Mediterranean Europe (+3%) delivered robust growth, while Central and Eastern Europe (+6%) rebounded strongly, although arrivals there remained -9% below pre-pandemic volumes.
The Americas recorded more modest growth of +1% to 218 million arrivals, reflecting mixed subregional performance and weaker results in the USA in the second half of the year.
South America (+7%) and Central America (+5%) led results in the Americas sub-regions, while parts of the Caribbean (flat) were impacted by Hurricane Melissa in the final quarter.
Africa delivered the strongest regional growth, with arrivals up +8% to 81 million, driven in particular by an +11% increase in North Africa.
The Middle East grew +3% year-on-year and stood around +39% above 2019 levels, reaching almost 100 million international visitors in 2025.
Asia and the Pacific continued its recovery, with arrivals up +6% to 331 million, although still -9% below pre-pandemic levels.
North-East Asia led the rebound, while South Asia recovered fully to 2019 volumes.
At destination level, many markets reported double-digit growth in international arrivals during 2025, including Brazil (+37%), Egypt (+20%), Morocco (+14%) and Seychelles (+13%).
Similarly strong results were reported through November by destinations including Bhutan (+30%), Iceland (+29%), Guyana (+24%), South Africa (+19%) and Japan (+17%).
The recovery in volumes was mirrored across wider industry indicators. International air capacity and passenger traffic both increased +7% through October, while global hotel occupancy reached 66% in November, matching the previous year.
Visitor spending remained robust, with international tourism receipts estimated at US$1.9 trillion for the year, up +5% on 2024, and total tourism export revenues, including passenger transport, reaching a record US$2.2 trillion.
Destinations reporting encouraging growth in receipts during the first ten to 12 months of 2025 include Morocco (+19%), the Republic of Korea (+18%), Egypt (+17%), Mongolia (+15%), Japan (+14%), Latvia (+11%) and Mauritius (+10%), all calculated in local currencies.
Among the world’s top tourism earners, the United Kingdom and France (both +9%), as well as Spain (+7%) and Türkiye (+6%), saw solid growth in the first ten to 12 months of 2025 compared to the same months of 2024.
Looking ahead, UN Tourism forecasts international arrivals growth of +3-4% in 2026, assuming continued recovery in Asia Pacific and broadly stable global economic conditions.
This positive outlook is confirmed by the latest UN Tourism Confidence Index and survey among its panel of experts. Some 58% of experts foresee better or much better performance in 2026 than in 2025, while 31% expect similar results and 11% worse.
While lower oil prices and major events such as the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics and the FIFA World Cup 2026 are expected to support travel demand, geopolitical tensions, elevated travel costs and extreme weather events remain key downside risks, in UN Tourism’s view.
UN Tourism Secretary-General Shaikha Alnuwais said, “Demand for travel remained high throughout 2025, despite high inflation in tourism services and uncertainty from geopolitical tensions.
“We expect this positive trend to continue into 2026 as global economy is expected to remain steady and destinations still lagging behind pre-pandemic levels fully recover.” ✈
