The UN World Tourism Organisation’s (UNWTO) Tourism Vision for 2020 forecasts that international tourist arrivals are expected to reach over 1.56 billion by the year 2020.

The Tourism Vision for 2020 is the UNWTO’s long-term forecast and assesses developments in global tourism over a 25 year period with 1995 as the base year and forecasts for 2000, 2010 and 2020.

By 2020, the top three regions for tourism will be Europe , which will account for 45.9 percent of the global tourism market. It will be followed by East Asia and the Pacific with 25.4 percent and the America with 18.1 percent.

The forecasts show that long-haul travel worldwide will grow faster at 5.4 percent per year over the period 1995-2020 than inter-regional travel at 3.8 percent. Consequently the ratio between inter-regional and long-haul travel will shift from around 82:18 in 1995 to close to 76:24 in 2020.

The UNWTO also estimates that the number of international tourists will hit 1 billion in 2010.
In 2009, international tourism revenues accounted for 9.3 percent of total global GDP and the sector generated 210 million jobs or 7.4 percent of the world’s total working population./.