Palestine is the world's fastest growing tourist destination

A new report compiled by the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) revealed that the world’s fastest growing tourist destination for 2017 is Palestine, The Telegraph reported. 

The report features two other Arab countries in its top ten list. They include Egypt, which came in second and Tunisia, which came in fifth.

According to the British publication "the fact that countries such as Egypt and Tunisia feature in the top ten seems to indicate their ability – against the odds – to bounce back after a string of terrorist attacks." 

The report doesn't mean that the countries featured on its list are popular tourist attractions, it simply features them because they experienced the fastest growths in their respective tourist industries this year. 

Other countries in the report's top ten list include Northern Mariana Islands, which ranked third, followed by Iceland, Vietnam, Uruguay, Nicaragua, and Mongolia. 

According to the UNWTO, the occupied territories witnessed a 57.8 percent rise in international arrivals in the first six months of 2017.

If the arrival rates continue to rise at the same pace, the country will be on course to welcome more than 630,000 holidaymakers by the end of this year.

The Telegraph mainly attributes the huge boom in the country's tourism industry to the opening of Banksy's boutique hotel in Palestine's West Bank earlier this year. 

"Overlooking the Israeli West Bank barrier, Banksy’s politically-charged Walled Off Hotel has likely helped raise awareness of tourism in Palestine," The Telegraph wrote. 

Even though Egypt's tourism industry was hit hard after a wave of terrorist attacks targetted the country in 2016 and 2017, it seems to have been recovering in recent months. 

The country has "witnessed a 51 per cent spike in international tourist arrivals this year and is on course to welcome nearly 8 million holidaymakers in 2017." 

However, these numbers are still well below the 14 million who visited in 2010.

This could possibly be because Egypt continues to be blacklisted as a tourist destination by several countries, including the UK which "still refuses to let airlines fly to Sharm el-Sheikh." 

UNWTO reports that arrivals are up by 32.5 percent in Tunisia so far this year. 

"If the trend continues, some 7.5 million holidaymakers would visit Tunisia in 2017, not far off the 7.8 million who flocked there in 2010," The Telegraph wrote. 

The positive news comes after the country's tourism industry suffered several blows in recent years. 

In 2015, terrorists went on a shooting rampage outside a beach resort in Sousse, killing 38 people, most of whom were tourists.