International tourism up by 2 per cent in Q1 2026

With Okorie Uguru
okorieuguru@gmail.com
 
The United Nations World Tourism Organisation (UN Tourism) has released the first quarter of the year’s global tourism report.   According to the latest data from UN Tourism, some 307 million tourists travelled internationally in the first quarter of 2026, about six million more than the same period of 2025. While the start of the year saw sustained travel demand overall (+2.5 percent cumulative growth in January and February), the Middle East conflict impacted performance in March (+0.4 percent).
The conflict is expected to reduce growth in international arrivals by one to two percentage points below UN Tourism’s initial forecast of th...