2007 Tourist Figures Tell Many Stories

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Although it’s almost the middle of the year, it’s around this time that a whole lot of official statistics from travel and tourism during the year 2007 seem to be released. Amongst all the figures are a few surprises that don’t necessarily seem to match up with the rising cost of travel, especially of flying. Of course, this year has seen much more extreme increases and the trends could easily reverse, but it’s interesting to take a look at them.

• France was the world’s favorite tourist destination during 2007 - again. Compared to the figures for 2006, the number of people visiting France rose by 4 per cent, going up to 82 million tourists (although the stats do mention that 14 million of these arrivals were only in transit and not staying long in France). It’s interesting to note that despite the currency problems with the falling value of the American dollar against the Euro, the number of American tourists visiting France rose by 7 per cent, and Americans spent an average of eight nights in France.
• Some of the newest figures released have caused re-thinks in tourism strategies, and New York City is a good example of this. NYC attracted 46 million tourists during 2007 and that’s meant that Mayor Michael Bloomberg has now revised the target date for getting 50 million tourists into the city. With visitor numbers rising so rapidly, he now predicts New York can get 50 million visitors a year by 2012 instead of 2015.
• During 2007, there were record numbers of tourists entering Australia. Naturally, these overseas visitors are nearly all coming on long-haul flights, and perhaps the relative cost of long-haul flights hasn’t risen to the same extent as “cheap flights” taken domestically or to nearby countries. In any case, nearly 23 million overseas visitors entered Australia last year, more than the entire population of the country.
• In the Middle East, the numbers of group tourists rose, especially in the popular destination of Jordan. On the whole, though, tourism numbers to this region fell a little when compared to 2006.
• And finally, to look at the least explored continent: in Antarctica, tourist arrivals are constantly increasing by a somewhat alarming rate, at least from an environmental point of view. The figures comparing 2007 with a decade earlier are startling. The number of tourists who have set foot on Antarctica rose by over 700 per cent over the ten year period; those visiting only by boat also increased drastically, by over 400 per cent.