Germany sits at the top of the list of the world biggest international tourism spenders with an expenditure of US$ 84.3 billion or 8.2% of the total world expenditures in 2011. Since 1995, the top two spenders have been Germany and the United States, the former having occupied the top rank most of the time.
The 3rd place has shifted among continents. Until the late 1990s, Japan was the 3rd biggest spender. Then it was replaced by the United Kingdom that remained a big spender until 2008. After 2009, China overtook the United Kingdom, climbing to a 3rd rank quite close to the top two players. This dynamic picture provides a telling metaphor of the economic muscle of today's key world players.
Germany and China are two of the world's biggest exporters, enjoying large positive trade balances. However, as tourism is concerned, the situation is reversed : both are prodigal spenders, buying many more tourism services from abroad than those they sell to foreigners. The net result is that they have a negative tourism balance (international tourism receipts less international tourism expenditures) — $US -45.5 billion for Germany, and $US -24.1 billion for China. The United States, France, Italy and Australia, in spite of having a place among the top 10 tourism spenders, manage however to achieve a positive balance.
Top 10 Tourism Spenders | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Rank |
Country |
1995 |
2000 |
2005 |
2006 |
2007 |
2008 |
2009 |
2010 |
2011 |
% of world |
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| (Billion US$, current) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 1 | Germany | 18.0 | 60.2 | -42.2 | 18.7 | 53.0 | -34.3 | 23.1 | 74.4 | -51.3 | 32.8 | 73.9 | -41.1 | 36.0 | 83.1 | -47.1 | 40.0 | 91.0 | -51.0 | 34.7 | 81.2 | -46.6 | 34.7 | 78.1 | -43.4 | 38.8 | 84.3 | -45.5 | 8.2% | |
| 2 | United States | 44.9 | -44.9 | 82.4 | 64.7 | 17.7 | 81.8 | 69.0 | 12.8 | 85.8 | 72.1 | 13.7 | 96.9 | 76.4 | 20.5 | 110.0 | 79.7 | 30.3 | 94.2 | 74.1 | 20.1 | 103.5 | 75.5 | 28.0 | 116.3 | 79.1 | 37.2 | 7.7% | ||
| 3 | China | 3.7 | -3.7 | 16.2 | 13.1 | 3.1 | 29.3 | 21.8 | 7.5 | 33.9 | 24.3 | 9.6 | 37.2 | 29.8 | 7.4 | 40.8 | 36.2 | 4.6 | 39.7 | 43.7 | -4.0 | 45.8 | 54.9 | -9.1 | 48.5 | 72.6 | -24.1 | 7.0% | ||
| 4 | United Kingdom | 20.5 | 24.9 | -4.4 | 21.9 | 38.4 | -16.5 | 22.7 | 59.6 | -36.9 | 34.6 | 63.1 | -28.5 | 38.6 | 71.4 | -32.8 | 36.0 | 68.5 | -32.5 | 30.1 | 50.1 | -20.0 | 32.4 | 50.0 | -17.6 | 35.9 | 50.6 | -14.7 | 4.9% | |
| 5 | France | 27.6 | 16.3 | 11.3 | 30.8 | 17.8 | 13.0 | 36.6 | 30.5 | 6.1 | 46.3 | 31.2 | 15.1 | 54.3 | 36.7 | 17.6 | 56.6 | 43.1 | 13.5 | 49.5 | 38.5 | 11.0 | 46.6 | 38.5 | 8.1 | 53.8 | 41.7 | 12.1 | 4.0% | |
| 6 | Canada | 10.3 | -10.3 | 10.8 | 12.4 | -1.6 | 13.8 | 18.0 | -4.2 | 14.6 | 20.6 | -6.0 | 15.6 | 24.7 | -9.1 | 15.7 | 26.9 | -11.2 | 13.7 | 24.2 | -10.5 | 15.7 | 29.6 | -13.9 | 16.9 | 33.0 | -16.1 | 3.2% | ||
| 7 | Russia | 4.3 | 11.6 | -7.3 | 3.4 | 8.8 | -5.4 | 4.5 | 17.3 | -12.8 | 7.6 | 18.1 | -10.5 | 9.4 | 21.2 | -11.8 | 11.8 | 23.8 | -12.0 | 9.4 | 20.9 | -11.5 | 8.8 | 26.6 | -17.8 | 11.4 | 32.5 | -21.1 | 3.2% | |
| 8 | Italy | 28.7 | 14.8 | 13.9 | 27.5 | 15.7 | 11.8 | 31.2 | 22.4 | 8.8 | 38.1 | 23.1 | 15.0 | 42.7 | 27.3 | 15.4 | 45.7 | 30.8 | 14.9 | 40.2 | 27.9 | 12.3 | 38.8 | 27.1 | 11.7 | 43.0 | 28.7 | 14.3 | 2.8% | |
| 9 | Japan | 0.6 | 36.8 | -36.2 | 3.4 | 31.9 | -28.5 | 6.6 | 27.3 | -20.7 | 8.5 | 26.9 | -18.4 | 9.3 | 26.5 | -17.2 | 10.8 | 27.9 | -17.1 | 10.3 | 25.1 | -14.8 | 13.2 | 27.9 | -14.7 | 11.0 | 27.2 | -16.2 | 2.6% | |
| 10 | Australia | 9.3 | 16.8 | 16.8 | 17.8 | 17.8 | 22.3 | 22.3 | 24.8 | 15.7 | 9.1 | 25.4 | 17.6 | 7.8 | 29.8 | 22.2 | 7.6 | 31.4 | 26.9 | 4.5 | 2.6% | |||||||||
| 10 | Netherlands | 6.6 | 11.7 | -5.1 | 7.2 | 12.2 | -5.0 | 9.2 | 16.2 | 11.3 | 17.0 | 13.3 | 19.1 | 13.3 | 21.7 | |||||||||||||||
| World | 411 | 482 | 683 | 742 | 856 | 944 | 851 | 927 | 1,030 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| ¹ Rec : Tourism receipts. ² Exp : Tourism expenditure. ³ Bal : Balance = Tourism receipts - Tourism expenditure. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Sources: UNWTO : World Tourism Barometer, Tourism Highlights.
