ABSTRACT
This chapter presents statistics from UN World Tourism Organization, starting with the total arrivals by region and then for the top destination countries. It examines a general marketing approach for international markets using the destination marketing system. The chapter describes the size of the worldwide international tourist market and the distribution of tourist arrivals by region and for the leading destination countries. It focuses on the trends and prospects for international tourist arrivals. The chapter discusses the major challenges involved with inbound international tourism to destinations. It outlines the emerging geographic origin markets. The chapter reviews selected market segments that have demonstrated recent growth potential. It explains a general procedure for marketing and promotion towards international pleasure and leisure travel markets. Marketing and promoting to international pleasure and leisure travel markets presents a unique set of challenges, most of which are not found with domestic tourism. The scale and complexity of international markets is perhaps the most serious challenge.
