International tourism is a huge market but Egypt continues to be a perennial underperformer. In a market representing USD 1.5 tn per year in revenues in 2015, Egypt’s share was under USD 6.1 bn, far from the top 10 list in terms of arrivals and receipts, according to the UNWTO’s Tourism Highlights 2016 report, (pdf) which uses a picture of the Karnak Temple in Luxor as its cover. The report focuses on the raw numbers, not insights and strategies, but shows the major trends in tourism across the world.

France leads the world in terms of tourist arrivals, having welcomed 84.5 mn tourists in 2015, followed by the United States, Spain, and China. The same four top the recipient list, but in a different order; the United States comes ahead having brought in USD 204.5 bn, followed by China, Spain, and France. The surprise entries on the lists are Russia on the arrivals side with 31.3 mn tourists and, more strikingly, China’s special administrative region of Macao on the receipts side with USD 31.3 bn — suggesting that gambling can do wonders for your tourism industry (that’s more than 5x Egypt’s tally, if you’re counting).

Compared to the Middle East, Egypt trails Saudi Arabia (buoyed by hajj and umrah tourists) and Morocco, respectively, in terms of arrivals. Although Egypt inches slightly above Morocco in terms of receipts, it falls behind Saudi Arabia, high-spender attractions in the UAE, and, surprisingly, Lebanon, which attracted USD 6.9 bn in receipts in 2015. The dynamic between the UAE and Lebanon specifically is particularly interesting, as Dubai overtook Beirut as the regional plastic surgery destination, according to a recent AMEinfo piece. A silver lining for the region as a whole: the UNWTO report expects the Middle East’s share of tourism arrivals globally to grow from 6.5% in 2010 to 8.2% in 2030.