International tourist arrivals reached 97% of pre-pandemic levels in the first quarter of 2024, according to UN Tourism.
More than 285 million tourists travelled internationally in January-March, about 20% more than the first quarter of 2023, underscoring the sector’s near-complete recovery from the impacts of the pandemic.
In 2023 international tourist arrivals recovered to 89% of 2019 levels and export revenues from tourism to 96%, while direct tourism GDP reached the same levels as in 2019.
UN Tourism’s projection for 2024 points to a full recovery of international tourism with arrivals growing 2% above 2019 levels.
In line with this, the newest data released by the UN specialised agency for tourism shows that:
- The Middle East saw the strongest relative growth, with international arrivals exceeding 36% of pre-pandemic levels in Q1 2024, or 4% above Q1 2023. This follows a strong performance in 2023, when the Middle East became the first world region to recover pre-pandemic…
