This study investigated the relationship between the tourism trade balance and globalization. We developed a novel and encompassing approach to measuring the tourism trade balance, including several inflows and outflows. The responsiveness of the tourism trade balance is examined not only for globalization processes depicted by indicators like de facto economic, social, and political globalization but also for globalization policies, i.e., de jure globalization. A comparative analysis across countries - belonging to different income groups, different quartiles of the tourism trade, globalization, and economic growth - revealed considerable heterogeneities among the other grouping of countries for the tourism-globalization relationship. The study suggested that it is of utmost importance to recognize that countries with a high level of globalization and well-developed tourism industry are in a better position to materialize the benefits of globalization.