The number of annual international tourist arrivals worldwide reached one billion for the first time last year, with Asia and the Pacific showing the strongest growth in foreign visitor numbers.

The UNWTO World Tourism Barometer figures reveal an additional 39m tourists travelled internationally last year, reaching 1.035bn compared with 996m in 2011.

Japan showed recovery following the 2011 earthquake and tsunami, with receipts from international tourism increasing 37 per cent, and across Asia and the Pacific there were 15m more visitors, an increase of 7 per cent overall.

Other international destinations that saw increases by 15 per cent or more included India and South Africa (22 per cent), Sweden and Korea (19 per cent), Thailand (18 per cent) and Poland (16 per cent).

Among the top ten tourist destinations, receipts were significantly up in Hong Kong (16 per cent), the US (10 per cent), the UK (6 per cent) and Germany (5 per cent).

Secretary-general Taleb Rifai said despite economic volatility, particularly in the Eurozone, international tourism managed to stay on course, and is expected to continue expanding in 2013.

"Tourism is thus one of the pillars that should be supported by governments around the world as part of the solution to stimulating economic growth," he said.

The UNWTO is forecasting growth in international visitor numbers of 3 to 4 per cent in 2013.