The monastery of Geghard
(The Independent -Armradio)- The United Nations World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO) lists Armenia among the 20 fastest growing tourism destinations in the world.
According to UNWTO, France remained the most-visited country with more than 90 million visitors, followed by Spain’s 83.8 million in 2019.
But the most interesting stats related to the countries that saw the highest jump in visitor numbers year-on-year.
Top of the pack was Myanmar, which saw a 40.2 percent increase in visitors, followed by Puerto Rico (31.2 percent) and Iran (27.9 percent), although this last is likely to suffer a drop in 2020 given the current political climate.
Winter sun destinations previously hit by terror attacks also saw a comeback last year, with Egypt seeing a 21.1 percent increase in visitor numbers, Turkey a 14 percent raise, and Tunisia up 13.6 percent.
The Caribbean also saw a return to favour having recovered from the devastating effects of Hurricane Irma in 2017 – visits to Anguilla, St Maarten, Dominica and the US Virgin Islands all rose significantly.
Sri Lanka experienced an 18 percent drop in tourist numbers, due in large part to the terror attacks over Easter. Hong Kong saw an 18.8 percent decrease following protests and social unrest.
Featured in the list of fastest growing countries for tourism are Myanmar (40.2%), Puerto Rico (31.2%), Iran (27.9%), Uzbekistan (27.3%), Montenegro (21.4%), Egypt (21.1%), Vietnam (16.2%), Philippines (15.1%), Maldives (14.9%), Bahamas (14.6%), Qatar (14.5%), Armenia (14.4%), South Korea (14.4%), Turkey (14.0%), Bosnia and Herzegovina (13.7%), Tunisia 13.6%), Laos (11.5%), Azerbaijan (11.4%), Israel (10.5%), Lithuania (10.1%) and Kazakhstan (10.0%).