According to the latest World Tourism Barometer from UN Tourism, international tourism arrivals rose 5% in the first six months of 2025 compared to last year. Global travel is now about 4% above pre-pandemic levels, with nearly 690 million people crossing international borders between January and June.
Based on the report, Africa had the strongest results, up 12% year over year, with North Africa (+14%) and Sub-Saharan Africa (+11%) seeing double-digit gains. Asia-Pacific is also making a comeback, seeing an 11% increase overall, and reaching 92% of its pre-pandemic numbers. Japan and Vietnam were among the top standouts, each climbing 21%.
Europe welcomed around 340 million tourists in just six months, resulting in 4% overall growth compared to 2024 and a 7% increase over 2019.
With that said, the results are more mixed in the Americas. While South America experienced solid growth (+14%), Central America saw only a 2% increase. And North America saw flat results, with small declines in the United States and weaker performance in the Caribbean.
When it comes to travel spending, destinations including Japan (+18%), the United Kingdom (+13%), France (+9%) and Spain (+8%) saw significant revenue growth.
“In the face of global challenges, international tourism continues to see strong momentum and resilience,” said Zurab Pololikashvili, secretary-general for UN Tourism. “The first half of 2025 brought growing arrival numbers and revenues for most destinations around the world, which contribute to local economies, jobs and livelihoods. Yet, this also reminds us of our great responsibility to ensure this growth is sustainable and inclusive and to work with all local stakeholders in that sense.”
Overall for 2025, UN Tourism continues to project overall growth of 3-5%, though concerns remain over the rising costs of accommodations and transportation, as well as anxiety over ongoing political uncertainty. As the public continues to travel, UN Tourism notes that they may choose to stay closer to home, take shorter trips or spend less in response to these economic and geopolitical challenges.
