Most popular countries for tourists in 2022: The places tourists are flocking back to after pandemic

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Most popular countries for tourists in 2022: The places tourists are flocking back to after pandemic

By Michael Gebicki
Updated
Visitors queue to enter the Louvre museum in Paris. France is the world's most-visited country this year.

Visitors queue to enter the Louvre museum in Paris. France is the world's most-visited country this year. Credit: iStock

According to the UN World Travel Organisation (UNWTO), in the period between January to July 2022 international tourism was back to 60 per cent of pre-pandemic levels. That should bring comfort to the world's tourism industry, the second largest global employer, contributing 10.3 per cent to the world's GDP in 2019, but recovery is patchy.

Australia

In the period from January 2022 to the end of July, Australia recorded 1.4 million short-term arrivals. In the same period in 2019 the figure was 5.3 million.

Hardest hit is visitation from China, the number one source of visitors before the pandemic. In the year to June 30, 2019, more than 1.43 million Chinese residents visited Australia, In May of that year, Australia welcomed 94,700 Chinese tourists. In May 2022, that number was just 4,250, a drop of over 95 per cent. Chinese tourists are still banned from overseas travel.

While numbers could recover quickly once travel bans are lifted, that will depend on the Chinese government's relations with Australia, and the Chinese government has been prepared to use its tourists as a political instrument in the past.

Visitors from New Zealand, now the biggest source of inbound tourism to Australia, dropped by 60 per cent between May 2019 and May 2022, however UK visitors, now in the number two spot, are only 45 per cent below the numbers recorded in May 2019.

India has become Australia's third largest source of visitors. In May 2022, 31,570 Indian residents entered Australia, just 22 per cent fewer than in May 2019. The majority of these are reunion visits to family and friends, underlining the strength of Indian migration to Australia over the past decade.

The UK

In the first five months of 2022, the UK welcomed 8.6 million foreign visitors. That's a long way short of the 14.9 million overseas residents who visited the UK in the same period in 2019 but there are promising signs for a strong recovery from some regions.

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In May 2022 the UK saw 420,000 visitors from North America, almost double the previous month and closing fast on the 570,000 who visited the UK in May 2019. Visitation from EU residents was even stronger, 1.85 million in May 2022, against 2.04 million in May 2019.

Over the past three months the British pound has fallen sharply against the euro and the US dollar – and also the Australian dollar – and this will likely stimulate visitor numbers. UK tourism is also expected to see an increase in visitors stemming from the global coverage of the the funeral of Queen Elizabeth II in September.

US

Total visitation to the US in 2019 was 79.3 million, which made it the world's second most visited country after France. From January to May 2022 the US welcomed 16.7 million foreign-resident visitors, just over half the number who entered in the same period in 2019.

The latest figures, for May 2022, show a continuing improvement, with 4.3 million visitor arrivals in the month, as against 6.7 million in May 2019. However that was before the US experienced a surge in the value of its currency.

The US dollar is now at its highest value for the past two decades, rising against every other major world currency, and up by 15 per cent against the Aussie dollar over the past three months. While it remains strong that's going to dampen the appeal of the US for foreign visitors.

France

From a total of 90 million visitors in 2019, the number of visitors to France plummeted to 41.7 million in 2020 before a rebound in 2021 took inbound tourism numbers to 48.4 million. France still had COVID-19 protocols in place for much of that year that restricted the inflow of non-EU nationals in particular, and the relaxation of those controls has seen tourists return in force.

Atout France, the country's tourism promotion agency, reports 25 million foreign visitors entered France in July and August this year. Here,as elsewhere Chinese tourists have failed to arrive, after more than 2.4 million visited France in 2019. Despite their absence, the Paris Convention and Visitors Bureau is expecting 33 million domestic and foreign travellers to visit Paris in 2022, compared to 38 million in 2019.

Maldives

Remote, scattered and expensive, the luscious little coral islands that make up the Maldives might have been knocked off their feet by the pandemic but recovery has been swift. After visitor numbers declined by more than two-thirds between 2019 and 2020, the Maldives are now back to over 80 per cent of pre-COVID visitor numbers, the fastest among tropical island resort destinations.

The Maldives was quick to reopen its borders, with a rapid COVID-19 vaccination campaign to protect its citizens and stringent hygiene protocols that helped rebuild travellers' confidence.

Also, the Maldives has been investing in digital technology for many years. More than 60 per cent of the population is now connected to broadband internet, and that has been a selling point in an age where remote working is the new normal. If you can work remotely, what could be nicer than an overwater bungalow with the world's greatest aquarium sloshing beneath your bed? That's the work-life balance sorted in one.

See also: The 10 countries that are refusing to reopen to tourism

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