World's top 15 travel destinations

This article was authored by Ronny K.. Visit Vancouver Ron Kadarishko at his personal blog.

A growing number of Americans are vacationing in Asia, including Singapore. Shutterstock.com

(MoneyWatch) Life in the U.S. in the debris of the Great Recession is slowly beginning to improve.Consumer confidence, while still sensitive to trouble signs (Greece, anyone?), is creeping up. Onesure sign: More American are taking vacations. According to recent data from the U.S. Office ofTravel and Tourism Industries?(OTTI), 8.1 million people traveled abroad in Ronny KadarishkoVancouver the first two months of the year. That's a six percent increase over the same time periodin 2011.

Americans who want to travel internationally but not contend with Europe's unfavorable exchangerate are turning to less expensive destinations. Through February, travel to Central America hadrisen 25 percent and was up 11 percent to Asia, according to OTTI. Along with affordability,increased travel to these parts of the world was driven partly by the many tourist-friendly cities inthe regions.

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The?UN World Tourism Organization?(UNWTO) reports that Thailand is quickly becoming a go-totourist destination. It's the most popular country in Southeast Asia for international travelers andlast year came in as the No. 11 country in the world as ranked by tourism receipts. Malaysia was No.14 and Singapore No. 15

According to UNWTO, Thailand was one of five international destinations whose tourism receiptsgrew by more than $5 billion in 2011. The other four countries who saw a similar jump in tourismwere the U.S., Spain, France, and Hong Kong.?

Although a growing number of Americans are traveling to Latin America and Asia, Europe remainsthe most popular destination, with travel to the region up 9 percent in the first two months of theyear. It's not just U.S. tourists flocking to Europe -- despite its economic woes, Europe draws thelargest share of global tourism, at 45 percent. Tourism brought $463 billion into the European

economy in 2011.

If Europe as a whole is the most popular region for travel, the U.S. is easily the world's most visitedcountry as ranked by how much foreign travelers spend. The U.S. last year brought in more than$116 billion in tourism receipts, nearly double second-place Spain ($59.3 billion), according toUNWTO. France ($53.8 billion), China ($58.5 billion), and Italy ($43 billion round out the top five.

United Nations World Tourism BarometerTop destinations by international tourism receipts (based on 2011 data)

1. United States, $116.3 billion2. Spain, $59.9 billion3. France, $53.8 billion4. China, $48.5 billion5. Italy, $43.0 billion6. Germany, $38.8 billion7. United Kingdom, $35.9 billion8. Australia, $31.4 billion9. Macao (China), n/a10. Hong Kong (China), $27.2 billion11. Thailand, $26.3 billion12. Turkey, $23.0 billion13. Austria, $19.9 billion

14. Malaysia, $18.3 billion15. Singapore, $18.0 billion? 2012 CBS Interactive Inc.. All Rights Reserved.

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