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According to the World Tourism Organization, international tourist arrivals reached an all-time record of 763 million in 2004, representing an increase of 10.6% from 2003. Growth was recorded in all regions across the world and was particularly strong in Asia and the Pacific region and in the Middle East region. The number of international tourist arrivals in Asia and the Pacific region increased by 33 million to 153 million in 2004 and Asia and the Pacific region gained almost half of all new arrivals worldwide in the year. Even though this increase can be viewed as a rebound from the relatively low figures of 2003 due to the Iraq war, SARS and weak economy, it was still a 9% increase as compared to the figures in 2002. The growth in international tourist arrivals also bought about an increase in the international tourism receipts. Excluding the effect of exchange rate changes and inflation, the total receipts increased from US$280 billion in 1990 to US$623 billion in 2004, representing a CAGR of 5.9%.
The top five tourism destinations in the world attracted 253.7 million international tourist arrivals in 2004 and accounted for more than one-third of the world's total number of arrivals recorded in the year. The top tourism destination in 2004 was France with approximately 75.1 million international tourist arrivals. The PRC ranked 4th and attracted about 41.8 million of international arrivals in 2004 and earned approximately US$25.7 billion in 2004. Among the top 10 tourism destinations, Hong Kong and the PRC recorded the highest growth rate. The number of international arrivals in Hong Kong and the PRC increased at a CAGR of 13.6% and 7.6%, respectively during the period from 2000 to 2004:
World's Top 10 Tourism Destinations
Rank Destination 2004 Number of CAGR 00-04 % Share
arrivals (million)
1 France 75.1 -0.7% 9.8
2 Spain 53.6 2.9% 7.0
3 US 46.1 -3.1% 6.0
4 China (PRC) 41.8 7.6% 5.5
5 Italy 37.1 -2.5% 4.9
6 UK 27.8 2.5% 3.6
7 Hong Kong 21.8 13.6% 2.9
8 Mexico 20.6 0.0% 2.7
9 Germany 20.1 1.4% 2.6
10 Austria 19.4 1.9% 2.5
World 763 2.9% 100.0
In Asia and the Pacific region, the PRC ranked first with the highest number of international arrivals recorded in 2004. The chart below illustrates the number of international tourist arrivals in the region:
Note: Data of Singapore and Australia were unavailable in 2004
According to the statistics of the World Tourism Organization, 52% of the international tourist arrivals were related to leisure, recreation and holidays and 24% of the arrivals were related to visiting friends and relatives, while 16% of the visits were business related. The chart below illustrates the purpose of, health, religion and other visits corresponding to international tourist arrivals in 2004:
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