Worldwide tourism will grow 4 percent this year to

Costa Rica continues to be a country very visited by tourists from around the world

For the first time globally, international tourist arrivals reached 1 billion (1,035 million) during the year 2012, according to an initial advance of the World Tourism Barometer, exhibited by the World Tourism Organization (WTO) in the framework of the international tourism fair (Fitur).

The World Tourism Organization expects for the 2013 world tourism growth between 3% and 4%, figures that match the predictions made by the Organization to obtain an average of annual growth of 3.8% in the decade from 2010 to 2020.

Data indicate that the fastest-growing tourist region was the Pacific and Asia, who won a 7% increase in arrivals of tourists compared to the 2011. Southeast Asia is the sub-region with better results (9% increases) due to regional tourism promotion policies.

The following region with greatest increase in tourism demand is Africa (6%) with a record of 52 millions of

data from the sub-region of Middle East international tourist arrivals were the only ones in the world that remained in red, however, improved by 2%, after having reached a growth of - 7% during 2011.

Meanwhile, Europe remains the most visited region of the world with 535 million arrivals of tourists (51% of the world). The Mainland had a total increase of 3%, where France and Italy recorded a decline in tourism (- 7% to - 2% correspondingly).

America recorded a total of 162 million tourists, an increase of 6 million (4%) compared with 2011. The most visited sub-region is Central America (4%), while South America dropped 9% that maintained the 2011 to a 4%

For Costa Rica, the data are encouraging, since according to the Costa Rican Institute of Tourism depending on the country received to September of 2012 around 1,800,000 tourists, being the number of the last registered quarter arrivals (513.513) higher from the same period in 2011 (485.067).

Posted by Costa Developers