It's official: Tourism figures back to pre-pandemic levels

 

Global tourism figures are back to where they were pre-Covid, the UN Tourism organisation has declared.

With 1.4 billion international tourist arrivals recorded globally, 2024 marked the recovery of international tourism from the worst crisis in the sector’s history.

A majority of destinations welcomed more international tourists in 2024 than they did before the pandemic, while visitor spending also continued to grow strongly.

The latest World Tourism Barometer from UN Tourism says an estimated 1.4 billion tourists travelled internationally in 2024, indicating a virtual recovery (99%) of pre-pandemic levels.

This represents an increase of 11% over 2023, or 140 million more international tourist arrivals, with results driven by strong post-pandemic demand, robust performance from large source markets and the ongoing recovery of destinations in Asia and the Pacific.

Growth is expected to continue throughout 2025.

The Middle East (95 million arrivals) remained the strongest-performing region when compared to 2019, with international arrivals 32% above pre-pandemic levels in 2024, although only 1% higher compared to 2023.

Asia and the Pacific (316 million) continued to experience a rapid recovery in 2024, though arrival numbers were still at 87% of pre-pandemic levels, an improvement from 66% at the end of 2023.

"In 2024, global tourism completed its recovery from the pandemic and, in many places, tourist arrivals and specially earnings are already higher than in 2019," said UN Tourism secretary general Zurab Pololikashvili.

"Growth is expected to continue throughout 2025, driven by strong demand contributing to the socio-economic development of both mature and emerging destinations. 

"This recalls our immense responsibility as a sector to accelerate transformation, placing people and planet at the centre of the development of tourism."

Among the world's top five tourism earners, the United Kingdom (+40%), Spain (+36%), France (+27%) and Italy (+23%) saw robust growth in the first nine to eleven months of 2024, compared to 2019.

Tourists can't get enough of Japan

Visitation to Japan hit an all-time high in the 2024 calendar year.

Japan's inbound tourism figures saw the Asian nation welcomed 36.87 million tourists - up by more than 15% on 2019’s previous best of 31.88 million people, Japan National Tourism Organisation data shows.

Major growth markets were South Korea and the US, both up nearly 60%, although the number of visitors from mainland China was down 27%, news portal Travel Mole reported.

Major Japanese travel agency group JTB has said it expects inbound Japan tourism to surpass 40 million for the first time in 2025.

Tourism-related spending by foreign visitors reached a record Y8.14 trillion ($US 52 billion) in 2024.

This is a 69% increase on pre-pandemic 2019.

*The number of foreign visitors to Japan is calculated based on immigration statistics compiled by the Ministry of Justice.

Australia making more white wine than red

Total sales of Australian wine exceeded production for the second year in a row, but there is still a lot of red wine in tanks waiting for a home.

The good news followed successive small vintages, says the Australian Wine Production, Sales and Inventory Report 2024 released today by Wine Australia.

Wine production was just over 1 billion litres, an 8% increase compared with 2022–23 but still the second-smallest reported production in 17 years, and 16% below the 10-year average of 1.24 billion litres.

Peter Bailey, manager for market insights at Wine Australia, said that the below-average production from the small 2024 vintage was the result of a combination of seasonal factors and economic and market conditions.

“This was another difficult season in many regions, with heavy rainfall and flooding, widespread windy conditions affecting flowering, and dry spring weather leading to cold nights and the potential for frost damage,” Bailey said.

“However, the result has also stemmed from deliberate decisions by grape growers and wine businesses to reduce production or intake, driven by the current economic and market conditions affecting demand for wine.”

The overall increase of 8% cent compared with 2022–23 was made up of a 20% increase in white wine production, partly offset by a 2% decrease in red wine production.

This saw white wine’s share of production increase from 46% to 51% - the first time in 12 years that the production of white wine has exceeded that of red wine in Australia.

Bailey said that this change reflected adjustments made by the sector to counter the oversupply of red wine that had arisen over the past three years.

The total volume of sales of Australian wine in export and domestic markets was 1.08 billion litres - a decrease of 1% compared with 2022–23, with both domestic and export sales showing very small declines.

Bailey said growth in red wine exports was driven by the re-commencement of exports to mainland China following the removal of import tariffs in late March 2024.

“It will take some time before there is a clearer picture of how Chinese consumers are responding to the increased availability of Australian wine in–market,” Bailey said.

“Any increase in production is likely to result in stock levels rising again, unless there is a corresponding increase in sales. This is a particular concern for reds, where the stock-to-sales ratio is still well above the long-term average.”

Bailey noted that the global outlook for Australian wine remains challenging. 

World wine consumption has continued to decline over the past 12 months and is expected to decline further in the next five years, driven by economic constraints, overall alcohol moderation trends and competition for wine from other beverages.

Image: Elena Pasenko, Scop.io 

Triple whammy of problems a threat to Australia's tourism industry

The tourism industry in Australia could be facing a crisis.

A shortage of staff, a decline in inbound tourist numbers and steep price increases are a triple whammy meaning that Australia is becoming a less attractive place for vacationers.

In Tasmania alone, just this week, one of the state's biggest tourism attractions was closed down - and a fish and chip shop in a seaside resort had to close its doors because it could not find staff.

Global brewing giant Lion announced that Launceston's Boags Brewery visitor centre and brewery tours will shut down from January 31, citing "ongoing challenges arising from the Covid-19 pandemic".

The tours have consistently been ranked among Launceston's top three visitor attractions and the closure comes at a time when the city has added accommodation capacity.

In Bicheno, meanwhile, Coastal Seafoods said it did not have sufficient staff to operate over the key summer holiday period. Much of the accommodation previously available to casual staff is now used as more lucrative Airbnb accommodation. 

In Sydney, anyone looking for a hotel for Friday night would find precious little for under $250 a night, unless they want to stay in a hostel.

Even worse in Melbourne, with the Australian Open tennis pulling in the crowds. Only a handful of decent options here under $320. 

Official statistics show that in November 2022, arrivals into Australia totalled 1,189,920 - a monthly decrease of 22,930 trips, while departures were 1,177,430 - a monthly increase of 162,610 trips.

That indicates Asian tourism is way down - and that many Australians prefer to spend their money in more affordable destinations like Bali and Thailand, rather than spending their money at home.

"These are the sort of statistics that will make Australian tourism and hotel executives sleep nervously," veteran travel industry public relations operative Peter Hook said on LinkedIn.

"Put simply, Australians are heading out of the country at breakneck speed, but the flow of travellers wanting to say G'day to Australia is decreasing.

"Anecdotal evidence suggests that the outflow has accelerated even faster since these November figures. With little prospect of China travellers returning in large numbers in the near future, we will need more major events and enhanced tourist attractions and activities to keep domestic travellers interested in staying home."

Hook, the principal of Hook Communications, adds: "Many holiday destinations in Australia actually benefited from closed borders because they had a captive market - literally.

"Now, these destinations need to convince domestic tourists that they are still worth visiting, despite the world being open again. Half of my street has voted with their feet and headed overseas these holidays, despite the high airfares."