Monaco’s Tourist and Convention Authority reports that European tourism enjoyed its seventh consecutive year of growth, despite localised challenges, such as the attack last July that took the lives of more than 80 people in Nice.
The most visited region in the world welcomed 620 million international tourist arrivals last year, a modest but welcome two percent increase compared to 2015. Citing the European Travel Commission, the DTC said that Europe proved incredibly resilient to safety and security challenges with the majority of European destinations reporting continued growth towards the end of 2016.
Europe has more than a 50 percent share of the global tourism market, and tourist flows are expected to increase by three percent in 2017.
Iceland enjoyed the biggest growth in 2016, up 40 percent, followed by Cyprus (20 percent) and Slovakia (19 percent).