Spain became in 2017 the second country in the world with the highest number of international tourist visits, surpassing United States and ranking only behind France, according to data recently published by the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) in its summary of global tourism activity for the year 2017.
Spain received the visit of 81.8 million tourists throughout 2017, an 8.6% more than the previous year. The first country continued to be France, with a total of 86.9 million international tourist visits, 5.1% more than in 2016.
The United States fell to third place, although the data are not yet definitive. The UNWTO currently attributes to it the figure for 2016 (75.9 million tourists), although during the first nine months of 2017 – which are definitive data – the number of international visits to the US decreased by 3.8%.
The list of the ten countries with the most international tourists throughout 2017 is completed by China (60.7 million), Italy (58.3), Mexico (39.3), United Kingdom (37.7), Turkey (37.6), Germany (37.5) and Thailand (35.4 million). The two countries on this list that grew the most last year were Turkey (+24.1%) and Italy (+11.2%). The only setback among the top ten was that of the United States.
The UNWTO also offers a ranking of the ten countries with the highest income from international tourism. In this case, the clear leader of the ranking is the United States, with an income volume of 210.7 billion dollars.
Spain ranked second with 68 billion dollars in international tourism revenue after growing 10.1%, and remained ahead of France, which was third with revenues of 60.7 billion dollars. France grew 9%, slightly below Spain.
Behind the United States, Spain and France in terms of tourism revenue were, in this order, Thailand, the United Kingdom, Italy, Australia, Germany, Macau (China) and Japan.
Worldwide, international tourist arrivals increased by 6.8% in 2017, the largest increase since 2009, reaching 1.232 billion trips, 84 million more than in 2016.
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