The Japan Times - Global tourism hit new record level in 2025 despite 'weak' US results: UN

The number of international tourist arrivals recorded worldwide hit 1.52 billion in 2025, 4.0 percent higher than the figure in the previous year, the Madrid-based body said in a statement.

But arrivals in North America fell 1.4 percent to 135.4 million last year with the body saying this was "partly due to weak results in the United States."

UN Tourism did not provide arrival figures for the United States or explain the country’s poor results in its report.

The weakness comes as US President Donald Trump has adopted foreign policy positions such as threatening to annex Canada and Greenland that have put off some potential visitors.

His government has also tightened curbs on entering the United States as part of a sweeping crackdown on migration, and announced plans to order foreign tourists to disclose their social media histories.

- 'Positive trend' -

Europe, the world's most popular destination region, recorded 793 million international arrivals in 2025, a 4.0 percent increase over the previous year and 6.0 percent above 2019, the year before the pandemic paralysed travel.

Africa saw an 8.0 percent rise in arrivals in 2025 to 81 million, with Morocco and Tunisia posting particularly strong results.

International arrivals grew by 6.0 percent in Asia and Pacific to reach 331 million in 2025, some 91 percent of pre-pandemic levels.

The rise in arrivals was fueled in part by increased international air capacity, visa facilitation in many nations and "robust" demand from key tourism markets.

Receipts from global tourism reached $1.9 trillion in 2025, a 5.0 percent increase from the previous year.

"Demand for travel remained high throughout 2025, despite high inflation in tourism services and uncertainty from geopolitical tensions," UN Tourism secretary general Shaikha Alnuwais said in the statement.

"We expect this positive trend to continue into 2026 as he global economy is expected to remain steady and destinations still lagging behind pre pandemic levels fully recover."

The UN body said the Winter Olympics in Italy and the World Cup hosted jointly by the United States, Canada and Mexico will help drive international tourism in 2026.

But it warned that "geopolitical tensions and ongoing conflicts continue to pose significant risks for tourism in 2026."

- Overtourism backlash -

"A sector so closely tied to international mobility is particularly vulnerable to health, geopolitical, or climate crises," Rafael Pampillon, a professor of economics at IE Business School in Madrid, told AFP.

The usual big tourism players were not the only ones with rising tourist numbers last year.

Bhutan experienced a 30 percent increase in foreign tourists.

The tiny Himalayan kingdom wedged between India and China, noted for scenic natural beauty and ancient Buddhist culture, has improved flight connections recently.

Other destinations which celebrated a double digit rise in international arrivals included Curacao, a small Caribbean island that is part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, and Sri Lanka.

The rise in visitor numbers since the pandemic has sparked a backlash in many tourism hotspots, prompting the authorities to take steps to ease the pressure on bursting beaches and gridlocked streets.

Japan has introduced an entry fee and a daily cap on the number of hikers climbing Mount Fuji.

A barrier was briefly erected outside a convenience store in 2024 to stop people from standing in the road to photograph a view of the snow-capped volcano that had gone viral.

Rome will charge tourists a two-euro entry fee from February to get close to the Trevi Fountain, a Baroque masterpiece located in a public square.

K.Tanaka--JT