Is International Tourism Growth Supported by Increased Tourism Receipts?

Tourism demand growth during the period between 2000 and 2016 in 25 European countries is calculated using different tourism indicators. It is shown that the number of tourist arrivals and aggregate tourism receipts increase during the period. Tourism receipts per arrival at current prices show a slight increase in the majority of selected countries, while tourism receipts per arrival at constant prices more or less stagnate, ranging from –2 to +2, and even exhibit sharper decrease in some countries of Southern and Eastern Europe. It can be concluded that tourism growth is predominantly fueled by the increasing number of tourist arrivals and not by receipts per tourist arrival. Keywords: international tourism, demand growth, European countries