The United Nations World Tourism Organization's latest World Tourism Barometer has revealed the most popular global destinations in the first four months of the year. Tourism continued to perform strongly around the world between January and April of this year with 369 million overnight visitors, 21 million more than the same time in 2016. Some countries that have struggled with violence and political unrest were able to turn their situations around and attract higher numbers of tourists.
According to the data, the Palestinian territories recorded the highest growth rate in tourism, attracting 400,000 visitors in the first four months of 2016 and that increased 57.8 percent in the first four months of 2017. Egypt managed to up its visitor numbers an impressive 51 percent despite several years of unrest. All of the hype surrounding Iceland as a spectacular tourist destination has seen it grow its overnight visitors as well. Despite the first four months of the year being particularly dark and gloomy, Iceland still managed to record a growth rate of 34.9 percent.
The World's Fastest Growing Tourist Destinations
Tourism
Description
This chart shows year on year growth in overnight visitor numbers in the first four months of 2017.
