Lidea Feed

In 2024, international travel will almost reach its pre-pandemic level

Rekha Prajapati January 22, 2025 01:27 PM

January 22, Madrid According to UN Tourism’s World Tourism Barometer, 1.4 billion people traveled abroad in 2024, representing an 11% increase in foreign visitor arrivals.

According to reports from Xinhua news agency, tourist numbers have rebounded to 99 percent of the levels recorded in 2019, shortly before the start of the COVID-19 epidemic, according to statistics released immediately before the FITUR international tourism show in Madrid on Wednesday.

Zurab Pololikashvili, the UN Secretary-General for Tourism, praised the outcome. “In 2024, global tourism completed its recovery from the pandemic and, in many places, tourist arrivals and especially earnings are already higher than in 2019,” he said.

According to him, growth is anticipated to continue until 2025, “driven by strong demand contributing to the socio-economic development of both mature and emerging destinations.”

According to UN Tourism, located in Madrid, 316 million foreign visitors traveled to Asia and the Pacific in 2024, which is 33% (78 million) more than in 2023 and 87% of pre-pandemic levels.

The Middle East experienced the largest increase in foreign visitors compared to 2019, with a 32% increase to 95 million, while Europe received 747 million in 2024, a 1% increase over 2019 and a 5% increase over 2023.

Strong performance was also seen by Africa, which saw a 12% rise in foreign visitors over 2023.

According to UN Tourism, the increase may be attributed in part to the recovery of international aviation traffic and capacity to pre-pandemic levels during the last 12 months.

With revenues reaching 1.6 trillion US dollars in 2024—a 4% increase from 2019 and a 3% increase from 2023—the increase in traveler numbers was likewise mirrored in expenditure.

The future seems to be promising as well. According to UN Tourism, provided global economic circumstances stay stable and geopolitical problems don’t worsen, there will be a “continued recovery of Asia and the Pacific and solid growth in most other regions” in 2025, with an increase of 3–5% over 2024.