International Tourism Is Growing in 2016, Despite High-Profile Challenges
Photo Credit: Tourists on a Segway tour of central Madrid, Spain. Western Europe's tourism arrivals are on the rise, but they are not growing as fast they did in 2015. Skift
Skift Take
International travel has definitely been impacted by terrorism and economic woes so far in 2016 but global tourism still grew in most regions around the world, some places significantly.
Global destinations welcomed 18 million more international travelers between January and April than the same period in 2015, a positive sign for an industry reeling from headlines involving terrorism, disease, and unfavorable currency fluctuations in some regions.
It appears, though, that those headlines haven't negatively impacted visitor arrivals in some of the world's most visited destinations, according to global visitor arrivals data from the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO).
Taleb Rifai, secretary-general of the UNWTO, maintains that the state of the world has never been better than it is in 2016. "Tourism and travel together has proven to be such a resilient industry that nothing is going to stop it," he told Skift during a visit to the organization's Madrid offices earlier this week. "It may be halted in certain destinations for a short period
