The most visited travel destinations in the world tend to be the same year after year, although changes happen as well. Changes are gradual – it may take 10 years, for instance, for the top 5 most popular countries to be reshuffled. A consultancy of large organizations, Deloitte, and Google have cooperated in a research that produced a report on the global travel industry and major trends. The report takes a long term view, projecting where the world will travel in 2040.
First, let’s set the scene by looking at the global travel destination statistics today. The Deloitte report NextGen travellers and destinations: our vision on the tourism industry transformation confirms that Europe continues to be the continent that attracts most travelers: 57% of travel globally is going to Europe. Asia Pacific region gets 19%, and North America 13% of travelers.
The countries that draw the most visitors are the following (Top 15 in 2023):
- France 89 million visitors
- Spain 83.2
- USA 63.7
- Italy 58.5
- Turkey 54.8
- Mexico
- China
- UK
- Germany
- Greece
- Austria
- Thailand
- UAE
- Saudi Arabia
- Japan
Klaava travel team believes that Europe simply is the best continent for travel because it is easy to find natural wonders, exciting historical places, fabulous beaches, high mountains, and good travel related services within a not-too-large region, but Deloitte may have discovered another reason as well. Europeans happen to be frequent travelers: 57% of travelers across the world come from Europe.
Although we have seen news about cities where residents are fed up with constant tourist crowds, tourism is a steadily growing global industry (that can significantly boost economies in destinations). As the middle class, especially in Asia and in South America is growing, more travelers will be heading to their overseas vacation destinations by 2040. So, where will the world travel in 20240?
The projected top 5 destinations in 2040 are in new order compared to 2013, and new countries are rising towards the top. Here are the top 15 travel destinations in 2040 as forecast by Deloitte:
- Spain 110 million travelers
- France 105
- USA 100
- China 90
- Mexico 90
- Italy
- Turkey
- Saudi Arabia
- Thailand
- Germany
- UK
- Japan
- Malaysia
- Indonesia
- UAE
Deloitte has also identified travel clusters that already exist and are renowned destinations in their own right, but that are expected to grow as popular travel regions by 2040:
- Mediterranean cluster: Spain, France, Italy, Turkey, Greece, Croatia, Morocco and Israel.
- Southeast Asia: Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Vietnam, Singapore and Philippines.
- Novel Middle East: Saudi Arabia, UAE, Egypt, Jordan, Qatar, Cyprus and Oman.
- Caribbean cluster: Mexico, Dominican Republic, Cuba, Guatemala, Jamaica, Costa Rica.