Asian destinations rise in world tourism rankings
Asian destinations strengthened their positions in the world's top tourism ranking in 2004, with China moving up by one notch to fourth and Hong Kong joining the top 10 list, according to a recent report by the World Tourism Organization.
Although the order of the three main world tourism destinations remained unchanged with France as the unchallenged leader, China's climb from fifth, taking over Italy's traditional position, was the most notable change in the ranking by international tourist arrivals last year, the Madrid-based U.S. tourism organization said in the report.
France maintained its leading position as the world's most visited destination, with 75.1 million tourist arrivals in 2004, up 0.1 percent from the previous year, followed by Spain with 53.6 million arrivals, up 3.4 percent.
The United States ranked third with 46.1 million, up 11.8 percent, showing significant recovery from the poor results of the past three years, the organization said.
China, ranking fourth, fully recovered from the setbacks caused by SARS and posted a 26.7 percent jump, compared with the 10.4 percent drop in 2003, to a record 41.8 million arrivals, it said.
Italy, trading places with China, saw tourist arrivals drop 6.4 percent to 37.1 million, while Britain retained sixth place with 27.7 million arrivals, up 12.1 percent.
Hong Kong made a spectacular entrance into the top 10 list, ranking seventh, with arrivals soaring 40.4 percent to 21.8 million.
Mexico and Germany kept the same positions as in 2003 with arrivals of 20.6 million and 20.1 million, respectively, while Austria fell back to 10th position with 19.4 million.
Overall tourist arrivals reported worldwide in 2004 came to 760 million, up 10 percent from the previous year, according to the organization.
