Global tourism arrivals enjoyed a huge rebound of 10% in 2004 after prolonged stagnation, the World Tourism Organisation said in its winter barometer report released on Monday.
”After three years of stagnant growth, international tourism experienced a spectacular rebound in 2004 with the great majority of destinations reporting positive results and many breaking records,” the Madrid-based organisation said in the report.
The WTO’s chief of market intelligence, Augusto Huescar, unveiled the report at talks on the Thai island of Phuket about reviving tourism following the December 26 tsunami, which left more than 283 000 dead around the Indian Ocean.
”Without meaning to downplay the devastating effect of the tsunami, it will not affect 2004 results significantly as it happened in the last week of the year,” said the report, which was based on preliminary figures.
The tsunami’s impact ”is expected to be limited in time and only in terms of traffic to some specific areas of these destinations, and no change of trend is likely to occur in the tourism results for the region”.
Huescar said the tsunami came as tourism was booming in the region in 2004, with arrivals growing by 23% in Thailand, 18% in India, 13% in Sri Lanka and nine percent in the Maldives.
Tourism is a vital industry in most of the countries hardest-hit by the disaster, but particularly in these four.
”We are optimistic as far as growth is concerned. We will need time, until say mid-February, until the short-term impact is known,” Huescar told the delegates from 30 countries, including several tourism ministers.
Globally, the organisation said the 10% jump in arrivals to 760-million was the highest rise since 1984. Asia and the Pacific led the way with 29% growth, along with the Middle East where arrivals soared 20%.
Part of the jump was due to depressed 2003 figures as a result of the Iraq war, the Sars outbreak and the weak global economy.
Africa and Europe performed below the world average, but still substantially better their results of previous years. The only two sub-regions that did not break their previous records were North America and Western Europe.
”In absolute terms, the number of international tourists increased by 69-million, representing a volume equivalent to a new ‘destination’ of almost the size of France, the world’s top destination in terms of international tourist arrivals,” the report said.
Along with the rebound in the wake of Sars, the growth was due to world economic recovery as well as reduced fears of the impact of rising oil prices.
The report noted that Europe has struggled to adapt to the continuing increasing strength in the euro.
”Although inter-regional traffic gradually started to return in 2004, it is tough for destinations in the euro zone to compete with less expensive destinations elsewhere in the world,” it said.
Canada, Australia, New Zealand and countries in southern Africa also suffered from the exchange rate effect, but benefiting were the United States, Mexico, the Caribbean, Central and South America, Asia, the Middle East and the United Kingdom.
Huescar said growth of five to eight percent was forecast for the industry in 2005.
The WTO releases its barometer three times per year. – Sapa-AFP