Arrivals slump by 8% to North Africa

But the global trend for international tourism was upwards with an overall 4.4% increase in arrivals, which reached just under 1.2 billion in 2015, according to UNWTO’s latest World Tourism Barometer. It was the sixth year of growth since 2010.

The performance of the UK outbound travel market was buoyed by a strong economy and pound which led to a 6% rise in spending on international trips during the year compared to 2014.

The regions to see the biggest rises in visitor numbers were Europe, the Americas and Asia-Pacific, which all went up by around 5% in 2015. Arrivals to the Middle East rose by 3% but Africa was down by 3%, mainly due to the drop in visitors to North Africa.

UNWTO secretary general Taleb Rifai said: “International tourism reached new heights in 2015. The robust performance of the sector is contributing to economic growth and job creation in many parts of the world.

“2015 results were influenced by exchange rates, oil prices and natural and manmade crises in many parts of the world.

“As the current environment highlights in a particular manner the issues of safety and security, we should recall that tourism development greatly depends upon our collective capacity to promote safe, secure and seamless travel.”

Rifai urged governments to include their tourist authorities within their security planning processes to minimise the sector’s “exposure to threats” and to “maximise the sector’s ability to support security and facilitation”.

UNWTO said the prospects for this year “remain largely positive” although its Confidence Index was “slightly lower” than in the previous two years. It is predicting a 4% rise in international tourists in 2016.

Asia-Pacific and the Americas are expected to see the biggest rise in arrivals this year with estimated growth of 4%-5%, while European arrivals are likely to rise by 3.5%-4.5%.

Arrivals in Africa and the Middle East are set to rise between 2% and 5% due to “a larger degree of uncertainty and volatility”.