The past few years have seen a gradual shift from surface transport to air transport for travelers. Slightly over half of all tourists arrived at their destination via air travel (51%) last year. The remaining tourists used surface travel, which consisted of road (41%), rail (2%), and water (6%) transport, according to UN Tourism.
It’s not surprising that air travel has increased as it has become cheaper in many of countries, especially in Europe, where rail travel has been a popular mode of transport in the past. That said, it is a bit astonishing that rail travel accounts for only 2% internationally, considering the sheer number of tourists who travel by rail between European countries. On a side note, it would be interesting to know how much of the road travel is by bus versus automobile.
(Statistics were from 2007 through 2009)
Minor updates and edits were made from the original article.
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Gennaro Salamone is the founder and editor of Enduring Wanderlust. Please contact him with questions regarding article or photo submissions.