Notice: This is only a preliminary collection of relevant material
The data and research currently presented here is a preliminary collection or relevant material. We will further develop our work on this topic in the future (to cover it in the same detail as for example our entry on World Population Growth).
If you have expertise in this area and would like to contribute, apply here to join us as a researcher.
All our charts on Tourism
This visualization shows how tourist arrivals have increased since shortly after the Second World War in 1950.
The United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) estimates that internationally there were just 25 million tourist arrivals in 1950. 68 years later this number has increased to 1.4 billion international arrivals per year. This is a 56-fold increase.
This chart shows the relative distribution of tourist arrivals by region. In 1950 full two-thirds of tourists arrived in Europe. Over the following 68 years the relative importance declined to around 50%, but it is still the most important touristic region.
Asia and Pacific had only very small importance as a tourist destination in 1950. In 2018 however, every fourth tourist arrived in the region.
The map shows the number of tourists by country. France is today the country that receives most tourists.
Fatal accidents
The chart shows the number of fatal accidents globally from airliners these figures are given based on commercial flights with a minimum of 14 passengers’ capacity. The number of fatal incidents from airline hijacking or sabotage is also shown (and included in total figures).
The chart shows the number of fatal aviation accidents per million commercial flights.
The chart shows the number of fatalities globally from airliners; these figures are given based on commercial flights with a minimum of 14 passengers’ capacity. The number of fatalities from airline hijacking or sabotage is also shown (and included in total figures).
The visualization shows the number of aviation fatalities per million passengers on commercial airlines (with a minimum capacity of 14 passengers).
The visualization shows the inverse of the trend above: the number of air passengers per fatality on commercial airlines. In 2017, 90 million passengers flew per death from commercial airlines.
- Data: Various measures related to tourism such as tourist arrivals, departures, and spending.
- Geographical coverage: Global
- Time span: Mostly focussed on recent developments, but some data going back to 1950.
- Available at: UNWTO.org
- Data: Arrivals, departures, expenditure, expenditure by traveller, receipts as share of exports and more
- Geographical coverage: Global
- Time span: 1995 to today
- Available at: The data is published in the World Development Indicators online.