Countries with the highest outbound tourism expenditure worldwide 2019-2021

China was the country worldwide with the highest outbound tourism expenditure in 2021. That year, China's outbound tourism spending amounted to more than 109 billion U.S. dollars, showing a 17 percent decrease from 2020 and only accounting for roughly 43 percent of the value reported in 2019. Meanwhile, the United States and Germany followed in the ranking in 2021, with around 57 billion and 51 billion U.S. dollars in outbound tourism expenditure, respectively.

COVID-19 impact on inbound tourism

As countries worldwide adopted different measures and travel bans to limit the spread of the virus, many travelers had to cancel or reschedule their trips abroad during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. This caused the number of international tourist arrivals worldwide to fall by roughly 72 percent in 2020 over the previous year. While this scenario slightly improved in 2021, the volume of inbound arrivals remained way below pre-pandemic levels. Unsurprisingly, with the decrease in inbound arrivals came a decline in revenue. For instance, inbound tourism spending in the United States, the country with the highest international tourism receipts worldwide, declined by nearly 127 billion U.S. dollars in 2020 and dropped further in 2021.

Which region is the most popular for inbound tourism worldwide?

Both before and after the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, Europe was the global region recording the highest number of international tourist arrivals. The volume of inbound travelers in this area has increased steadily since 2010, peaking at 746 million in 2019. Due to the health crisis, the number of international travelers in Europe fell by 68 percent in 2020, then increased slightly in 2021.