UNWTO: World’s Top Tourism Spenders in 2017 – Infographics

Virtually all source markets reported higher tourism spending in 2017, reflecting continued strong demand for international tourism across all world regions, according to the latest UNWTO World Tourism Barometer released on Tuesday.

China consolidated its leadership as the biggest spender in travel abroad in 2017 with US$ 258 billion in expenditure (+5 percent in local currency).

The other three BRIC economies all substantially increased expenditure in 2017. The Russian Federation (+13 percent) rebounded after a few years of declines, to reach US$ 31 billion, climbing three places to re-enter the top ten at number 8. Brazil (+20 percent) also recovered strongly and moved up eight places to number 16 with US$ 19 billion in expenditure. India continued its rise with 9 percent growth in spending to US$ 18 billion and moved up four places in the ranking to 17th.

Advanced economies also performed robustly in 2017, led by the United States (+9 percent), the world’s second largest outbound market. US travellers spent US$ 12 billion more on international tourism to US$ 135 billion. Expenditure from Germany (3rd largest market) and the United Kingdom (4th) both increased 3 percent, and from France (5th) 1 percent.

Australia (6th) reported 7 percent growth and Canada (7th) a 9 percent increase. Completing the top ten are the Republic of Korea (9th) where expenditure grew by 9 percent and Italy (10th) where it increased by 6 percent.

Beyond the top ten, tourism spending also grew notably in Sweden (+14 percent) and Spain (+12 percent).

These strong results in outbound tourism are consistent with the 7 percent increase in international tourist arrivals in 2017. Demand for travel was particularly high in Europe, where arrivals increased 8 percent last year.