Tourism worldwide will grow by a strong 5.3% in 2014, the biggest increase since 2010.

Emerging-market flows are surging: Chinese tourists spent 31% more in the first half of 2013 than a year earlier, according to the UN World Tourism Organisation, the largest rise globally.

In 2014 Asia will lead the way, with outbound tourism growing by 7.9%.

Low-cost airlines operating on thin profit margins will continue to challenge traditional carriers. In early 2014, Garuda Indonesia will enter the SkyTeam alliance and SriLankan Airlines will join oneworld. Defensive alliances and joint ventures are aimed at countering intensifying competition from cheap airlines for lucrative business travel.

Demand for new commercial aircraft in the Middle East and Asia will boost the dominant aerospace companies – America’s Boeing and Europe’s Airbus – which will face turbulence in their defence activities. New-plane deliveries will grow by 10% or more.

Hotel room rates in Latin America will rise sharply, stoked by high inflation in Venezuela and Argentina and the staging of the World Cup in Brazil, where rates will climb by 8%. Thanks to the 2016 summer Olympics, Brazil is in the midst of a hotel-construction boom: 370 hotels and 60,000 rooms are on the way, according to Lodging Econometrics.

From The World In 2014 magazine, © 2013 The Economist Newspaper Limited.  All rights reserved.

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