WORLD'S TOP TOURISM EARNERS
1996

  • If countries are classified according to their tourism receipts, the same pattern emerges as for arrivals. The twenty countries with the highest tourism receipts account for a little over 71 per cent of world receipts. The ten leading countries alone represent 48 per cent of the world total.
  • The United States leads the world in tourism receipts, Spain overtakes France for the first time, in second position. The countries in East Asia and the Pacific, in particular China, Australia, Hong Kong, Thailand, Singapore and South Korea represented above two-digit growth rates. Japan has resumed growth after three consecutive years of decline. In North America Mexico reversed the negative trend of 1995. Tourism in the countries of Central and Eastern Europe, such as Poland, performed well.
Rank Country International
Tourism Receipts
(US$ million)		 % Change Market Share % of World Total
1990 1994 1995 1996   1990 1995 1996 96/95 1990 1996
1 1 1 1 UNITED STATES 43,007 61,137 64,373 5.29 16.16 15.22
4 4 4 2 SPAIN 18,593 25,343 28,428 12.17 6.98 6.72
2 2 2 3 FRANCE 20,185 27,527 28,241 2.59 7.58 6.68
3 3 3 4 ITALY 20,016 27,451 27,349 -0.37 7.52 6.47
5 5 5 5 UNITED KINGDOM 14,940 19,133 20,415 6.70 5.61 4.83
6 6 6 6 AUSTRIA 13,410 14,618 15,095 3.26 5.04 3.57
7 7 7 7 GERMANY 11,471 12,810 13,168 2.79 4.31 3.11
11 9 8 8 HONG KONG 5,032 9,604 11,200 16.62 1.89 2.65
25 10 10 9 CHINA 2,218 8,733 10,500 20.23 0.83 2.48
8 8 9 10 SWITZERLAND 7,411 9,459 9,892 4.58 2.78 2.34
12 12 11 11 SINGAPORE 4,596 8,212 9,410 14.59 1.73 2.22
9 11 12 12 CANADA 6,339 8,012 8,727 8.92 2.38 2.06
13 16 13 13 THAILAND 4,326 7,664 8,600 12.21 1.63 2.03
14 15 14 14 AUSTRALIA 4,088 7,100 8,264 16.39 1.54 1.95
65 14 15 15 POLAND 358 6,400 7,000 9.38 0.13 1.65
10 13 16 16 MEXICO 5,467 6,164 6,898 11.91 2.05 1.63
21 20 21 17 TURKEY 3,225 4,957 6,536 31.85 1.21 1.55
18 24 19 18 KOREA REP. 3,559 5,579 6,315 13.19 1.34 1.49
15 18 18 19 BELGIUM 3,721 5,719 5,893 3.04 1.40 1.39
16 17 17 20 NETHERLANDS 3,636 5,762 5,877 2.00 1.37 1.39
        TOTAL 1-20 195,598 281,384 302,181 7.39 73.48 71.43
        WORLD TOTAL 266,207 393,278 423,022 7.56 100.00 100.00

Source: WTO, Feb/97.

Privacy statement .Please let us know if you found any problems/errors.