UNWTO: Armenia among world’s fastest growing tourism destinations

The United Nations World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO) lists Armenia among the 20 fastest growing tourism destinations in the world, The Independent reports.

According to UNWTO, France remained the most-visited country with more than 90 million visitors, followed by Spain’s 83.8 million in 2019.

But the most interesting stats related to the countries that saw the highest jump in visitor numbers year-on-year.

Top of the pack was Myanmar, which saw a 40.2 per cent per cent increase in visitors, followed by Puerto Rico (31.2 per cent) and Iran (27.9 per cent), although this last is likely to suffer a drop in 2020 given the current political climate.

Winter sun destinations previously hit by terror attacks also saw a comeback last year, with Egypt seeing a 21.1 per cent increase in visitor numbers, Turkey a 14 per cent rise, and Tunisia up 13.6 per cent.

The Caribbean also saw a return to favor having recovered from the devastating effects of Hurricane Irma in 2017 – visits to Anguilla, St Maarten, Dominica and the US Virgin Islands all rose significantly.

Sri Lanka experienced an 18 per cent drop in tourist numbers, due in large part to the terror attacks over Easter.  Hong Kong saw an 18.8 per cent decrease following protests and social unrest.

Featured in the list of fastest growing countries for tourism are Myanmar 40.2%, Puerto Rico 31.2%,  Iran 27.9%,  Uzbekistan 27.3%,  Montenegro 21.4%,  Egypt 21.1%,  Vietnam 16.2%,  Philippines 15.1%,  Maldives 14.9%,  Bahamas 14.6%,  Qatar 14.5%,  Armenia 14.4%,  South Korea 14.4%,  Turkey 14.0%, . Bosnia and Herzegovina 13.7%, Tunisia 13.6%, Laos 11.5%, Azerbaijan 11.4%,  Israel 10.5%,  Lithuania 10.1% and Kazakhstan 10.0%.