Global tourist industry revenues reached a record high of $1.6 trillion in 2017, or 5 percent up from the year before, making the industry the third largest export sector in the world, UN's World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO) said on Wednesday.

Earlier this year, UNWTO, the United Nations’ agency specialising in the tourist industry, released data on global travelling, showing record high figures for 2017, including a total of 1.32 billion foreign tourists who travelled outside of their home countries’ borders, which was 7 percent up from 2016, and the largest yearly increase since 2010.

In other words, there were 84 million foreign tourists more travelling the world in 2017 compared to 2016, with the main growth attributed to European and African destinations, which recorded increases in tourist arrivals of 8 and 9 percent respectively.

UNWTO added that this was also reflected in the increase of revenue by 5 percent, to $1.6 trillion, including $1.3 trillion earned by destinations, and more than $240 billion generated in international passenger transport.

This means that tourism revenues amounted to about $4 billion per day, which is equivalent to 7 percent of all global exports, UNWTO said.

They added that the increase in international tourism revenues in 2017 was helped by strong demand by travellers from large economies such as Brazil and Russia, and also that Chinese tourists were the biggest spenders, spending nearly $260 billion on tourism.

China alone accounted for almost a fifth of the entire global $1.3 billion spending at tourist destinations around the world, with Chinese travellers spending some $94 billion more than in 2016, the agency said.

Earlier this week, UNWTO reported that France was the most visited tourist destination in the world in 2017, followed by Spain.

They added that the positive trends in global tourism are expected to continue this year, with data collected in the first four months of 2018 indicating strong 6 percent growth compared to 2017.