Greece occupied the 13th spot on the list for the world’s top destinations in terms of the number of arrivals in 2018, according to the World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO).
France had top spot with 93.2 million tourists (+7.2% compared to 2017), followed by Spain (82.8 million, +1.2%), the United States (82.2 million, +6.7%), China (62.9 million, +3.6% ) and Italy (62.1 million, +6.5%).
Greece is reported to have had 30.1 million tourists last year, up 10.8% compared to 2017 (the Bank of Greece data). Turkey, with 45.8 million arrivals and almost 22% in 2017, occupies the 6th place in the world.
In 2018, the World Tourism Organization recorded 1.4 trillion arrivals worldwide (+5.6% more than 2017). More than 60% of the world’s tourist traffic is directed to 20 countries.
The largest increase in tourist flows in 2018 was recorded in Tajikistan (+190%, 1.2 million arrivals, from 431,000 in 2017), mainly due to the opening of the border with Uzbekistan, followed by Ecuador by 51%, and Egypt with an increase of 36.8%.
Among the “losers” in 2018 was the United Kingdom, which, compared with 2017, had a 7.4% decline in the number of foreign arrivals.
In Paraguay, the number of tourists fell by 24.3% and in Chile by 11.3%.