Before we begin looking at which countries generate a lot of tourists, and which countries are visited most in the world, let’s define a few terms that will assist you in understanding actual statistics which identify the world’s major generating countries.
This is the country or region where the tourists came from. This country generated them. e.g. in the example above Australia would be the generating country. Where the tourists live is the generating country e.g. if you are travelling from Australia to New Zealand, Australia will be the generating country of region and New Zealand will be the host country.
People travel the world for many reasons. Statistics show that permanent residents departing for overseas travel, do so for the purposes found below:
- Leisure (holiday)
- VFR (visit friends and relatives)
- Other (example study, funeral, conference or work)
Arrivals statistics are gathered from tourists coming into the country. These are tourists who are permanent residents of other countries visiting this country for purposes such as leisure, business, VFR etc.
UNWTO defines Tourism Receipts as the expenditure of any inbound international visitor, including their payments to international airlines for their international transport.
They also include any other payments made for goods and services received in the destination country.
Tourism expenditure refers to the total consumption expenditure made by a visitor, or on behalf of a visitor for goods and services during his/her trip and stay at the destination place.
Tourism provides income for many countries and supports the economy of those countries, some of which rely on it as their main source of income.
It is important that these countries keep a close eye on trends and statistics, so they can see where the majority of their visitors come from. This allows them to market their destination to the right countries.
We are now going to look at the regions of the world and their significance as tourism generating and host markets.