Africa achieves strongest growth performance, Asia-Pacific continues recovery
Assessing the global tourism situation in the first six months of 2025, Zurab Pololikashvili, Secretary-General of UN Tourism, stated: “Despite the difficulties the world is facing, international tourism has maintained strong growth momentum. The increase in arrivals and revenue in the first half of 2025 has contributed positively to the economy, jobs, and local livelihoods.”
However, according to Secretary-General Zurab Pololikashvili, this also reminds us of the great responsibility to ensure this growth is sustainable and inclusive, while working with all local stakeholders to continue along this path of development.
In the first half of 2025, international tourist arrivals worldwide increased by 5% compared with the same period in 2024, about 4% higher than before the Covid-19 pandemic. Growth in tourist arrivals, however, varied between regions and subregions.
Despite the difficulties the world is facing, international tourism has maintained strong growth momentum. The increase in arrivals and revenue in the first half of 2025 has contributed positively to the economy, jobs, and local livelihoods.
Zurab Pololikashvili, Secretary-General of UN Tourism
Specifically, African tourism witnessed 12% growth, with North Africa increasing by 14% and Sub-Saharan Africa by 11%.
Europe welcomed nearly 340 million international tourist arrivals in the first half of 2025, up about 4% compared with 2024 and 7% compared with 2019. Accordingly, Northern Europe, Western Europe, and Southern Mediterranean Europe all recorded 3% growth in tourist arrivals during this period, although monthly results were uneven. Central and Eastern Europe continued strong recovery with a 9% increase in arrivals, though still 11% lower than in the same period in 2019.
In the same period, tourism in the Americas recorded 3% growth. However, while South America continued solid growth with 14%, Central America only increased by 2% in arrivals, and tourism in North America was almost unchanged. According to UN Tourism, this was mainly due to a slight decline in arrivals in the United States and Canada. The Caribbean also saw weaker performance, partly due to reduced demand from its main source market, the United States.
The Middle East recorded a 4% decrease in arrivals, despite the region’s strong recovery after Covid-19. In the first half of 2025, arrivals to the Middle East were still 29% higher than in the same period in 2019.
Notably, although tourist arrivals in Asia-Pacific grew by 11%, the region has only recovered to 92% of pre-Covid-19 levels. Compared with the same period in 2024, North-East Asia was the fastest growing subregion, up by 20%.
Viet Nam, Japan record world’s fastest tourism growth
Amid the general recovery of the tourism industry in Asia-Pacific, UN Tourism reported that Viet Nam and Japan were the two destinations with the world’s highest growth rates in the first half of 2025. Tourism in both countries grew by 21% compared with the same period last year.
In addition, several other markets also achieved positive growth, including: Morocco up 19%; the Republic of Korea (RoK) up 15%; Malaysia and Indonesia up 9%; Mexico, the Netherlands, and Hong Kong (China) up 7%. France and Spain – the world’s two leading destinations – both recorded 5% growth in arrivals.
UN Tourism reported that Viet Nam and Japan were the two destinations with the world’s highest growth rates in the first half of 2025. Tourism in both countries grew by 21% compared with the same period last year.
According to the Viet Nam National Authority of Tourism (Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism), Viet Nam’s tourism recorded impressive growth in the context where the Asia-Pacific region has not yet fully recovered.
According to statistics from the General Statistics Office (Ministry of Finance), in the first six months of 2025, the total number of international visitors to Viet Nam was estimated at more than 10.66 million, up 20.7% compared with the same period in 2024. Total tourism revenue was estimated at 518 trillion VND.
In the first eight months of 2025, international visitors to Viet Nam reached 13.9 million, up 21.7% compared with the same period last year. Experts noted that the relaxation of visa policies, enhanced promotion in many countries, and the opening of new flight routes to key “hot spots” have helped Viet Nam’s tourism recover strongly.
Tourism sector still faces considerable risks
A survey conducted in September 2025 by the UN Tourism Panel of Experts and Tourism Confidence Index showed that rising transportation and accommodation costs, along with other economic factors, are the top challenges affecting international tourism this year.
Tourism inflation is forecast to decline from 8% in 2024 to 6.8% in 2025 (based on the tourism inflation estimate method). However, this figure remains much higher than the pre-Covid-19 level of 3.1% and significantly higher than overall inflation at 4.3%.
About 50% of experts from the UN Tourism Expert Panel forecast that the outlook for September–December this year will improve, 33% believe it will remain similar to 2024, while 16% fear the situation will deteriorate.
According to the UN Tourism Panel of Experts, tourists will continue to seek travel experiences that offer good value for money and reasonably priced products. At the same time, travellers are also tending to choose closer destinations, prefer shorter trips, or spend less to cope with rising prices.
Meanwhile, global economic uncertainty and geopolitical tensions may affect confidence in tourism activities. According to the survey, low confidence ranks third in terms of impact on tourism, while geopolitical risks rank fourth. In addition, trade tariffs and travel requirements were also highlighted as major concerns by experts.
The Tourism Confidence Index from the UN Tourism Expert Panel indicated a slight improvement for the September–December 2025 period, reaching 120 points out of 200, up from 114 points in the May–August 2025 period. About 50% of experts forecast that the outlook for September–December this year will improve, 33% believe it will remain similar to 2024, while 16% fear the situation will deteriorate.
In fact, according to UN Tourism’s monthly statistics, in the first half of 2025, many destinations recorded impressive growth in international tourism revenue, including: Japan up 18%, the United Kingdom up 13%, France up 9%, Spain and Turkey up 8%.
Major outbound tourism markets with sharp increases in spending included: China up 16%, Spain up 16%, the United Kingdom up 15%, Singapore up 10%, and the RoK up 8%. Earlier, in 2024, global international tourism revenue reached a record 1.734 trillion USD, 14% higher than before Covid-19.
Despite facing considerable risks, global tourism demand is still expected to remain stable until the end of this year. UN Tourism has maintained its forecast for global tourism growth of 3–5% in 2025.
