Spain looks certain to leapfrog the United States to become the world’s second most visited country, the United National World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO) has said.

Overseas, overnight arrivals to the US fell by around four per cent during the first six months of 2017, compared with the previous year, with many suggesting the divisive presidency of Donald Trump is putting people off visiting. Spain, on the other hand, saw year-on-year arrivals increase by around nine per cent during the first 10 months of the year.

While definitive figures for the whole of 2017 will not be available until spring, the UNWTO said it was all but guaranteed that Spain would comfortably surpass the US and take second spot, behind France.

Going on current projections, around 82.2 million international tourists visited Spain in 2017, up from 75.3 million in 2016, compared with 72.9 million visitors to the US, down from 75.9 million. Spain was above the US in the rankings from 2001 to 2007, but lost its position during the global economic crisis.

France remains the world’s most visited country, with an estimated 88.9 million overseas arrivals last year, up from 82.6 million in 2016. China and Italy complete the top five.

The UK has seen an 8.2 per cent rise in arrivals, but is expected to fall from sixth to eighth place overall, behind Mexico and a resurgent Turkey.

The “Trump slump”

Donald Trump’s presidency has coincided with a 3.9 per cent fall in overseas arrivals, according to UNWTO, while other sources have put the figure slightly higher, at 5.3 per cent.

These figures might sound small, but they are significant, costing the US economy an estimated £140 million a week.

In a Telegraph Travel poll conducted in the run-up to last year’s election, 35 per cent of readers said they would avoid the US if Donald Trump became president.

It appears that many were good to their word. During the first half of 2016, arrivals from the UK fell even more sharply, by 6.3 per cent.

New York was a little less crowded last year Credit: getty

The biggest fall in visitors? Given Trump’s efforts to ban citizens from Muslim-majority countries, it will be no surprise to learn that arrivals from the Middle East and Africa have plummeted, by 30.2 per cent and 26.2 per cent, year-on-year, respectively. Mexico’s residents also have good reason to boycott the US, and it appears they are, with a 6.1 per cent fall in visits.

The “Trump slump”, as it has been described, has also been profound in Eastern Europe (arrivals from the region are down 11.9 per cent), South America (down 13 per cent), Central America (down 10 per cent) and the Caribbean (down 13.8 per cent). Only the Asian market has not seen a drop.

Which other countries saw tourism boom in 2017?

Again, figures for 2017 are not finalised, but current projections would suggest that several countries witnessed a remarkable rise in overseas arrivals.

Turkey rebounded from a tough 2016, when tourism fell by 23.3 per cent, to report a 29.9 per cent rise.

Japan’s arrivals rose by 18.3 per cent, India’s by 15.5 per cent, Indonesia’s by 23.5 per cent, and Vietnam’s by 27.8 per cent.

Tunisia, which was declared safe by the Foreign Office after two years off the travel map, welcomed 23.4 per cent more international tourists. Iceland (+16.6 per cent), Israel (+25.3 per cent), Nepal (+39.7 per cent) and Colombia (+21.4 per cent) also enjoyed a stellar 2017.

Where has tourism fallen?

Given the tensions on the peninsula it should come as no surprise to learn that arrivals to South Korea slumped by 23.9 per cent.

Russia was the only European country to see a significant fall in visitors of 8.4 per cent.

Hurricane Irma saw arrivals dip to several Caribbean nations, including Antigua and Barbuda (down 7.8 per cent) and Aruba (down 5.1 per cent).

How many tourists are there in the whole world?

It is estimated that total international tourist arrivals increased by seven per cent in 2017 to a remarkable 1.322 billion. This is expected to grow by as much as five per cent in 2018 – to 1.388 billion.