Global tourism hit new record level in 2025 despite ‘weak’ US results: UN

MADRID: Global tourism hit a new record level in 2025 despite a dip in arrivals in North America due to “weak results” in the United States, UN Tourism said Tuesday.

The number of international tourist arrivals recorded worldwide hit 1.52 billion in 2025, 4.0 percent higher than the figure in the previous year, the Madrid-based body said in a statement.

But arrivals in North America fell 1.4 percent to 135.4 million last year with the body saying this was “partly due to weak results in the United States.”

UN Tourism did not provide arrival figures for the United States or explain the country’s poor results in its report.

The weakness comes as US President Donald Trump has adopted foreign policy positions such as threatening to annex Canada and Greenland that have put off some potential visitors.

His government has also tightened curbs on entering the United States as part of a sweeping crackdown on migration, and announced plans to order foreign tourists to disclose their social media histories.

Europe, the world’s most popular destination region, recorded 793 million international arrivals in 2025, a 4.0 percent increase over the previous year and 6.0 percent above 2019, the year before the pandemic paralysed travel.

Africa saw an 8.0 percent rise in arrivals in 2025 to 81 million, with Morocco and Tunisia posting particularly strong results.

International arrivals grew by 6.0 percent in Asia and Pacific to reach 331 million in 2025, some 91 percent of pre-pandemic levels.

The rise in arrivals was fueled in part by increased international air capacity, visa facilitation in many nations and “robust” demand from key tourism markets.

Receipts from global tourism reached $1.9 trillion in 2025, a 5.0 percent increase from the previous year.