Small states: Travel services (% of commercial service exports)

Key figures

What the numbers say

In 2025, Small states' travel services (% of commercial service exports) fell 0.59 percentage points on 2024 (from 29.58% to 28.99%).

Across the 26 yearly changes before that (1993 to 2024), the average change was +0.01 percentage points and a typical year strayed about 4.62 percentage points from that (the standard deviation). This year's change was 0.1 standard deviations below that average, so it was an ordinary year: it sits within the range of normal year-to-year movement.

On record, the biggest yearly rise was 9.19 percentage points in 2022 and the biggest yearly fall was 17.1 percentage points in 2020. The numbers show how large and when, not why; for the cause, look at what happened in that country in those years.

From 2016 to 2025 there is no clear straight-line trend: a straight line explains 27% of the movement over 10 observed years, so the value is moving around more than it is heading anywhere.

Worked out from the yearly values above. How the checks work: standard deviation, z-scores and straight-line trends.

How it compares

See how every economy compares in the full ranking.

What this measures

Travel services cover goods and services for own use or to give away acquired from an economy by nonresidents during visits to that economy, or acquired from other economies by residents during visits to these other economies. This indicator is expressed as a percentage of service exports which are commercial services provided by residents to non-residents.

Limitations: Balance of payments statistics, the main source of information on international trade in services, have many weaknesses. Disaggregation of important components may be limited and varies considerably across countries. There are inconsistencies in the methods used to report items. And the recording of major flows as net items is common (for example, insurance transactions are often recorded as premiums less claims). These factors contribute to a downward bias in the value of the service trade reported in the balance of payments. Efforts are being made to improve the coverage, quality, and consistency of these data.

Regional and income-group figures are computed by the World Bank as a weighted average.

All 29 values

Travel services (% of commercial service exports) in nearby economies

• Afghanistan — 10.8% (2020)
• Algeria — 3.87% (2025)
• Bahrain — 33.49% (2025)
• Djibouti — 6.16% (2024)
• Egypt, Arab Rep. — 54.41% (2025)
• Iraq — 72.63% (2025)
• Israel — 3.56% (2025)
• Jordan — 76.7% (2024)
• Kuwait — 17.47% (2025)
• Lebanon

More private sector & trade data for Small states

• Merchandise trade (% of GDP) — 70.42% (2025)
• Merchandise imports (current US$) — US$141.38 billion (2025)
• Merchandise exports (current US$) — US$100.88 billion (2025)
• Merchandise imports from economies in the Arab World (% of total merchandise imports) — 4.65% (2023)
• Merchandise imports from high-income economies (% of total merchandise imports) — 72.82% (2023)
• Merchandise imports from low- and middle-income economies outside region (% of total merchandise imports) — 12.31% (2023)
• Merchandise imports from low- and middle-income economies in East Asia & Pacific (% of total merchandise imports) — 13.45% (2023)

Reading data like this

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Questions people ask

What is Small states's travel services (% of commercial service exports)?

28.99% in 2025, according to the World Bank (World Development Indicators).

How has it changed since 1992?

It is down 5.24 percentage points from 34.22% in 1992. The highest value was 44.15% in 1997 and the lowest 15.46% in 2021.

Is the latest change in travel services (% of commercial service exports) unusual for Small states?

In 2025, Small states' travel services (% of commercial service exports) fell 0.59 percentage points on 2024 (from 29.58% to 28.99%). Across the 26 yearly changes before that (1993 to 2024), the average change was +0.01 percentage points and a typical year strayed about 4.62 percentage points from that (the standard deviation). This year's change was 0.1 standard deviations below that average, so it was an ordinary year: it sits within the range of normal year-to-year movement.

Where does this data come from?

Source

World Bank, World Development Indicators, indicator TX.VAL.TRVL.ZS.WT, licensed CC BY 4.0. Original source: Balance of Payments Statistics Yearbook and data files, International Monetary Fund (IMF) Figures are fetched from the World Bank API and refreshed monthly; see the series on data.worldbank.org. The full definition and method are in the World Bank's metadata glossary. Comparisons use the same World Bank release.

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