Introduction to Tourism

13 Tourism by world region

Introduction

Chapter 14, outlining future trends and forecasts, refers briefly to the dramatic growth of international travel in the past half-century, an annual average growth rate of 7.3 per cent, from 25 million arrivals in 1950 to 567 million arrivals in 1995.

According to the World Tourism Organization (WTO, 1995) tourism receipts grew from US $7 bn in 1960 to US $372 bn in 1995. However, these figures are expressed in current prices and do not take into account the marked effect of inflation. Nevertheless the statistics speak for themselves, reflecting the major expansion of the total movement.

While the largest movement takes place between neighbouring countries and on an intra-regional basis, long-distance travel ...