International travel outstripping overall global economic growth according to IPK International survey

Istanbul is feeling the impact of overtourism. Photo / AP

International travel is booming, growing by 5.5 per cent to 1.4 billion trips in the past year, but that growth is fuelling concern about over-tourism.

Tourism is a key growth driver of the global economy, outstripping overall global growth of 3.7 per cent, according to the IPK International World Travel Monitor figures released in Berlin overnight.

The survey measures the perceptions of over-tourism among international travellers.
While residents in affected destinations have been protesting for years, travellers are also feeling increasingly impaired by the ''onslaught'' of tourist in particularly sought-after cities.

The survey covers travellers from 60 countries (representing 90 per cent of all international travellers) and shows that more than every tenth international traveller was negatively affected by over-tourism.

That was an increase of 30 per cent over the last 12 months.

Cities strongly affected by over-tourism were Beijing, Mexico City, Venice and Amsterdam, but also Istanbul and Florence.

Asia was the strongest source region last year, with 7 per cent more outbound trips.

New Zealand is lagging the international average.

After several years of exceptional tourism growth here, international arrivals grew 3.5 per cent to 3.86 million in 2018, down from 6.7 per cent growth the previous year, according to Stats NZ figures.

Of destination countries, one of the biggest changes was the stagnation of trips to Spain in 2018, a destination that boomed in the recent past.

However, destinations that were avoided by tourists recently are recovering, above all Turkey, with 8.5 million more visitors in 2018 compared to 2017.

Holidays once again outperform business travel, due to the continuous downward path of traditional business trips, while MICE (meetings, incentives, conferencing, exhibitions) trips continued to grow.

Some 38 per cent of international travellers say political instability and terror threats will have an influence on their travel planning for 2019.

Travellers from Asia feel much more affected by terror threats than travellers from other continents.

''In terms of what kind of influence terror threats will have on the travel behaviour, the great majority state that they will choose only destinations, which they perceive as 'safe'." The safety image of most destinations, including Turkey, Israel and Egypt, slightly improved over the last 12 months.