anymore france will remain the most popular tourism destination according to the united nations world tourism organization but spain could be set to replace the u.s. in the number two position with more than eighty million visitors last year a deadly terror attack in august and the political crisis and cut alone you don't appear to have dented spain's overall tourist figures that's not the case for the us politics affected international visitor numbers which dropped five percent early last year following the inauguration of donald trump but things a boarding well for countries in other regions europe continues to receive the highest number of international tourists six hundred and seventy one million in two thousand and seventeen asia and the pacific recorded three hundred twenty four million international visitors and africa and the middle east combined came in at one hundred thirty million visitors. europe africa had the highest growth rates of eight percent followed by asia in the pacific. with a six percent growth this is the highest annual growth rate in seven years the agency said this was mostly du

fronts will remain the most popular tourism destination according to the united nations world tourism organizationbut spain could be said to replace the u.s. in the number two position with more than eighty million visitors last year a deadly terror attack in august and the political crisis and cut alone you don't appear to have dented spain's overall tourist figures that's not the case for the u.s. politics affected international visitor numbers which dropped five percent early last year following the inauguration of donald trump. things a boding well for countries in other regions europe continues to receive the highest number of international tourists six hundred and seventy one million in two thousand and seventeen asia and the pacific recorded three hundred twenty four million international visitors and africa and the middle east combined came in at one hundred thirty million visitors europe and africa had the highest growth rates of eight percent followed by asia in the pacific. with a six percent growth this is the highest annual growth rate in seven years the agency said this was mostly du

even though international tourism surged 7% last year, trips to the united states fell about 4%. that is from the united nations world tourism organization. my partner, ali velshi, is back with us, live from the world economic forum in davos, switzerland. ali, part of this is being blamed on what is called the trump slump. >> reporter: right. so remember, some of this started after 9/11, when extra security concerns caused a lot of people who were traveling for vacation or holding con veferen in the united states to do something else. they didn't want the hassle. while travel went up for several years, it's been declining in the united states. it got really serious after the election of donald trump. here's what i found out. from our famous national parks to our equally famous theme parks, foreign tourists are checking out of the united states. the latest data from the national travel and tourism office shows a 4% decline in visits from foreign travelers and a 3.3% drop in travel spending. it's costing the u.s. economy more than $4.6 billion in spending that's gone. with it, an estimated 40,000 american jobs. where we should have been gr