Among the archaeological sites on Middle Caicos is a Lucayan Indian ball court.
The increase in travel abroad from various home markets boosted international tourism revenues in 2018, for a total of 1,7 billion dollars, reveals a new report from the World Tourism Organization (WTO).
This represents a growth of 4 percent over the previous year, and shows that for the seventh consecutive year tourism exports grew faster than merchandise exports (+3 percent), which is supported by the demand for international travel in a generally sound economic environment.
The data position international tourism among the world’s top five economic sectors, behind the chemical manufacturing and the fuel industry, but ahead of the food and automotive industries.
Zurab Pololikashvili, General Secretary of the WTO, said that instead of growing in volume we need to grow in value. We are pleased to see that both emerging and advanced economies around the world are benefiting from increased tourism revenues, he noted.
Total international tourism exports include 1,448 billion dollars in international tourism revenues (visitor spending on destinations) and 256 billion dollars in international passenger transport services.
Asia and the Pacific led the way with a 7 percent growth in international tourism incomes followed by Europe with a 5 percent increase. The Middle East experienced a growth of 3 percentwhile Africa (+ 1%) and the Americas (0%) recorded more modest results. Central and Eastern Europe and North East Asia (both + 9 percent) were the sub-regions with the highest growth.
Among the archaeological sites on Middle Caicos is a Lucayan Indian ball court.
