Tourism Industry Set To Bounce Back UN Finds

Tourism Industry Set To Bounce Back Stronger Than Ever, UN Finds

New York, Mar 6 2009 2:10PM

In spite of the hit that tourism is taking during the current global economic crisis, the industry will recover and be stronger than ever, the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) announced today.

In conclusions issued by the agency’s Resilience Committee (TRC), the industry – which has been severely impacted by the recession and is forecast to continue its downturn for the near future – has a key role to play in helping the world recover from the current turmoil.

“History has demonstrated that crises can also provide opportunities as they call for substantial efforts and industry solidarity,” the body, which met for the first time last month in Madrid, found.

Addressing the recession through the lens of long-term issues such as climate change and global poverty will also help the tourism industry weather future crises, it said.

UNWTO’s Secretary-General ad interim Taleb Rifai stressed that while it is impossible to estimate how long the current crisis will last, it is clear that tourism has much to contribute to the recovery process with its “unique resurgence capacity and an immense potential in terms of employment creation and sustainability.”

The agency expects international tourism to stay even or fall by up to 2 per cent this year. The Americas and Europe are expected to be impacted most, while Asia and the Pacific, as well as Africa and the Middle East, will find growth easing in 2009.

In January, a UNWTO report found that the economic slowdown threatens to reverse the historic four-year gains made by the industry in foreign travel. Although international tourist arrivals reached 924 million in 2008, up 16 million from 2007 or a two per cent overall increase on the year, growth stagnated in the second half of last year, hitting Europe the hardest.

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