1.2b people travelled abroad in 2015, a rise of 4.4% over previous year

Paris - Nearly 1.2 billion people travelled abroad in 2015, an increase of 4.4 per cent over the previous year, but the casual observer could be fooled by the sight of deserted North African beaches, once tourist hotspots.

The world's tourism map is being redrawn at lightning speed as holidaymakers switch preferences prompted by terror attacks, epidemics and migrant crises.
Overall, world tourism has never been in better shape.
Nearly 1.2 billion people travelled abroad in 2015, an increase of 4.4 per cent over the previous year, but the casual observer could be fooled by the sight of deserted North African beaches, once tourist hotspots.
Tunisia built its tourism industry on guaranteed sunshine and rock-bottom prices.
But visitor numbers to Tunisia tumbled by two million in 2015, leaving coast resorts empty and hotels idle.
Tunisia's tourism sector accounted for almost 10 per cent of the nation's economy.
Turkey is another victim of attack fears. Germany's TUI, the world's biggest tourism group, said on Tuesday it had seen bookings to Turkey drop by 40 per cent.
Some destinations are collateral damage from attack fears.
"There was no attack, but we were affected tremendously by a drop of visitors coming from Europe," Jordan's tourism minister Nayef Al Fayez said recently.
"We expect countries such as Greece, Portugal and Spain to largely benefit from the situation, offering similar weather, competitive prices, and security," said Wouter Geerts, analyst at the Euromonitor research company.
The sudden surge in demand is leading to higher prices in these destinations.
"Hotel owners tell clients 'Instead of charging ?50 per double room, I'm going to charge ?55, take it or leave it. If you don't want it, others will'," said Olivier Petit, at the In Extenso firm.
Cuba, which already got a boost from the thawing of relations with the United States in late 2014, is now also battling with bottlenecks, with daily arrivals of huge cruise ships in the Havana bay.
"I have a group of 250 people arriving this week and I've just heard that I can no longer count on 80 rooms that were booked and paid for in March, all because of over-booking," said Stephane Ferrux, director of French specialist travel agency "Cuba autrement" ("Cuba with a difference").
Tourism numbers in Cuba rose by 17 per cent in 2015, "but the country is not ready, they don't have the quality to justify prices that have gone up by half in a year. Everybody wants a piece of the cake," he said.
Haiti's unspoilt beaches are also becoming a magnet for tourists, six years after the country was devastated by an earthquake.
Battalions of tourists have been going to Colombia, Peru, Mexico and Argentina, but Latin American destinations could soon be affected by the spreading Zika crisis, experts say, pointing to the impact on sub-Saharan Africa of Ebola, of Chikungunya in the Carribbean and MERS Coronavirus, or Camel flu, in South Korea.
The migrant crisis has also taken a heavy toll on Greek islands, once a very safe bet for operators, but where masses of refugees have landed, scaring tourists.
"The Greek islands, especially tourism in Kos, have been severely damaged, as holidaymakers feel uneasy about the situation," according to Euromonitor.
Euromonitor pointed to recent data saying that there were 178,000 cancellations of Kos bookings between January and August 2015. 

• UAE