Domestic spending in Europe is expected to drop in the following years, a trend that is expected to occur all around the world in the next decade.
According to Statista, a statistics website, domestic spending as a share of total tourism revenue is and will continue to be the highest in the United States, while Europe and The Middle East and North Africa (MENA) countries.
More specifically, domestic spending in MENA countries in 2020 represented a little more than 20 per cent of total tourism revenue, and it rose to 25 per cent in 2022. As of 2025, it is expected to drop to 20 per cent and to a further 18 per cent in 2032.
Domestic spending as a share of total tourism revenue will stand on similar levels as in the MENA countries. While in 2020, domestic spending represented 35 per cent of the total tourism revenue, it dropped to around 33 per cent in 2022 and is expected to drop even further to 29 and 28 per cent in 2025 and 2032.
International travel can be vastly different depending on where you live. In a region like Europe, where much of the population lives within a few hours’ drive of the nearest international border, international travel makes up as much as two-thirds of the region’s tourism. In the US, however, this statistic is flipped.
The domestic spending in the United States represented around 85 per cent of the total tourism revenues in the country in 2020, and this rate dropped to 80 per cent in 2022. In 2025, domestic spending in the EU is anticipated to be around 75 per cent of the revenues generated by tourism and to further increase to around 77 per cent in 2032.
The US is the only country that is expected to generate more domestic spending in 2032 than in 2025, while all other countries and regions are anticipated to reduce their spending.
Only around 20 per cent of tourism revenue in North America is from international tourism, with a sizable share being from neighbors north and south of the border. So unlike Europe, America’s greatest tourism market is, in fact, homegrown and is less susceptible to global events than international travel.
Asia Pacific (APAC) countries will also experience a significant decrease in domestic spending, despite experiencing an almost seven per cent increase between 2020 and 2022. More specifically, domestic spending generated around 73 per cent of tourism revenues in 2020, while in 2022, this figure rose to 80 per cent. However, it is estimated that domestic spending will drop to 65 per cent in 2025 and to a further 63 per cent in 2032.
As per the Americas, in general, the region can expect a decrease of 13 per cent in domestic spending – dropping from 78 per cent of domestic spending that is generated from tourism in 2020 to around 65 per cent in 2032.
