UNWTO Barometer January 2023
A 6-page excerpt from the latest UNWTO Tourism Barometer consisting of commentary, data tables and charts.
Key insights include that international arrivals are estimated to have reached 63% of their 2019 tally last year, with Europe and Middle East being the star performers. In fact, in Western Europe arrivals reached 87% of 2019 levels.
The majority (72%) of the UNWTO Panel of Experts are predicting that there will be further improvements in 2023 with arrivals globally perhaps reaching 95% of where they had been ahead of the pandemic. Other predictions made by the panel are that travellers in 2023 will be focussed on value for money which could result in many of them choosing to travel closer to home.
Higher travel costs and a longer trip duration have combined to result in receipts from international tourist arrivals growing more quickly than volumes for a number of destinations. Caution is required in jumping to the conclusion that this simply means visitors are choosing to pay more than was the case a few years ago.
As well as difficult economic circumstances brought on by the rapid increase in inflation there are concerns of continued geopolitical headwinds denting tourism’s ongoing recovery.
The Excerpt concludes with a table showing recent trends by region and subregion.