Budget friendly flights have made Filipinos more mobile, but it looks like it’s not just Pinoys who have enjoyed international travel. According to the United Nations World Tourism Organization, there were 1.2 billion tourists all over the world in 2015, a 4.4 percent increase compared to 2014’s 1.18 billion. At the same time, global tourism is increasing yearly, with no less than four percent increase annually.
Most of the tourists come from China, followed by the US and t he UK.
Most regions enjoyed an increase in visitors, except for Africa, which dipped by three percent. Europe, North and South America, Asia, and the Pacific region enjoyed a five percent increase, while the Middle East enjoyed a three percent increase.
As a result, economic growth and job creation are expanding.
The UN warns that to meet the demand for international travel, countries must implement policies that will oversee growth in terms of travel facilitation, human resources development, and sustainability.
UNWTO Secretary-General Taleb Rifai adds:
As the current environment highlights in a particular manner the issues of safety and security, we should recall that tourism development greatly depends upon our collective capacity to promote safe, secure and seamless travel. In this respect, UNWTO urges governments to include tourism administrations in their national security planning, structures and procedures, not only to ensure that the sector’s exposure to threats is minimized but also to maximize the sector’s ability to support security and facilitation, as seamless and safe travel can and should go hand in hand.
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