Developing countries as major international destinations

Five developing countries6 were in the list of twenty major tourist destinations according tointernational visitor arrivals statistics in 2000. The volume of arrivals to the top destination in thedeveloping world – China - was only just over 40% of the volume to the world’s leading tourismdestination - France. That developing countries feature within the list of the top 20 destinations isa relatively recent phenomenon. Only 15 years earlier China, for example, received only 1.3million arrivals due to its restrictive travel policy. More established destinations like Mexico haveseen very similar growth rates when compared to France, i.e. a doubling of arrivals between 1985and 2000. Compared to other developing country exports, this gives them exceptionalprominence. While developing countries receive 42% of tourism spending (Table A2) they onlysupply 25% of traditional primary commodities (Page and, Hewitt, 2001). Developing countrieshave a surplus on tourism trade (they are net exporters).Table 2: Top 20 destinations in terms of international arrivals in 2000Position Country Arrivals (millions)1 France 75.52 United States 50.93 Spain 47.94 Italy 41.25 China 31.26 United Kingdom 25.27 RussianFederation21.28 Mexico 20.69 Canada 29.710 Germany 19.011 Austria 18.012 Poland 17.413 Hungary 15.614 Hong Kong(China)13.114 Greece 13.116 Portugal 12.017 Switzerland 11.418 Malaysia 10.219 Netherlands 10.220 Turkey 9.620 Thailand 9.6Source: WTO/OMT 2001For purposes of comparison, Table 3 provides details on the 20 largest developing countrydestinations and illustrates the significantly lower volumes of international tourists that most ofthese countries receive compared to the totals in Table 2. Table 4 classifies these by region. OnlyChina, Mexico and Malaysia attracted over 10 million arrivals in 2000 reaching levels seen insome of the newer European destinations such as Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic. SouthAfrica and Tunisia, which are relatively small destinations in a global context, are major playersin an African context.6 Developing countries for the purpose of data collection and display are those included in the OECD DAC list of aid recipients.Russia is also a sizeable tourism destination, and while not included in this definition, is the tenth country in terms of the numberof people living below the international poverty line.16Table 3: Significant developing country destinations in terms of international arrivals in 2000Country Arrivals (millions)1 China 31.22 Mexico 20.63 Malaysia 10.24 Turkey 9.65 Thailand 9.66 South Africa 6.17 Croatia 5.88 Brazil 5.39 Egypt 5.110 Indonesia 5.011 Tunisia 5.112 Morocco 4.113 Argentina 3.014 Dominican Republic 3.015 India 2.616 Philippines 2.217 Vietnam 2.118 Bahrain 2.019 Uruguay 2.020 Zimbabwe 1.9Source: WTO/OMT 2001Table 4: Regional Variations in international arrivals to developing countries, 2000Region Countries withover 10m arrivalsCountries with 5mto 10m arrivalsCountries with 1m to5m arrivalsAmericas MexicoBrazil Dominican Republic,Cuba, Cost Rica, Jamaica,Argentina, Chile, Peru,UruguayEast Asia /PacificChina Malaysia Thailand, Indonesia Vietnam, PhilippinesAfrica South Africa,Tunisia, EgyptMorocco, ZimbabweMiddle East Bahrain, JordanSouth Asia India, IranEurope RussianFederation7Turkey, CroatiaSource: WTO/OMT 2001Table 5 shows that those that have the highest number of international visitors do not necessarilyearn the highest receipts although there is a close correlation between the two. Cuba, Syria andJamaica are higher on the list; Uruguay, Bahrain and Zimbabwe are lower, perhaps because theyare destinations for short stays.7 Included here for the sake of comparison.17Table 5: Significant developing country destinations by tourism receipts, 1999Position Country Tourismreceipts(US$Million)Receipts perint’l visitor(US$)1 China 14,098 5212 Mexico 7,223 3793 Thailand 6,695 7744 Turkey 5,203 7555 Indonesia 4,710 9966 Brazil 3,994 7827 Egypt 3,903 8698 Malaysia 3,540 4469 India 3,036 1,22310 Argentina 2,812 97011 Philippines 2,534 1,16712 South Africa 2,526 41913 DominicanRepublic2,524 95314 Croatia 2,493 65515 Morocco 1,880 49316 Cuba 1,714 1,09817 Tunisia 1,560 32318 Syrian ArabRepublic1,360 98119 Jamaica 1,279 1,02520 Costa Rica 1,002 971