WTO: “World Tourism Will Soar in 2005”

Experts from the World Tourism Organization (WTO) believe that following a double-digit growth in 2004, the travel industry could etch out a more moderate 4 percent increase by the end of 2005.

WTO Secretary-general Francesco Frangialli noted it’s been twenty years since the world leisure industry made a similar positive forecast. “Back in 1984, world tourism was coming in out of the rain. A weak world economy and the second oil crisis had had made the industry’s woes drag on for too long,” Mr. Frangialli commented.

This time around, the world travel industry is staging an incredible comeback after getting over a severe crisis last year that was highlighted by the war in Iraq, terrorist threats nearly everywhere and the infamous SARS outbreak in Asia.

The World Tourism Organization (WTO) informed this week that some 526 million tourists sallied forth around the globe between January and August this year, up an eye-popping 12 percent from the same period of time in 2003. Stats for the year’s remaining four months will be put out later this month.

According to the information released by the Madrid-based WTO headquarters, 58 million more vacationers have traveled so far this year compared to the first eight months of 2003.

However, this comparison is stacked up against a year (2003) in which world tourism dipped 1.2 percent as a result of the war in Iraq, the SARS outbreak in Asia and a feeble world economy.

When matched with the year 2002, though, these figures show a solid 9 percent increase with 41 million more sunbathers.

Tourism has reaped positive outcomes through most of the ongoing year with a blistering 13 percent hike in the first four months, 23 percent in May, 12 percent in June, 10 percent in July and 6 percent in August, a month in which the number of international arrivals ratcheted up to 90 million worldwide.

The WTO notes that fear to travel has once again given way to wanderlust, and even though there’re still a few threats looming in the horizon, they are not causing such a mighty ripple effect on the travel industry as it happened three years ago.

In a region-by-region breakdown, the most spectacular spike was registered in the Asia-Pacific Rim with a stunning 37 percent, followed by North America, whose 12 percent increment stands for the first positive upshot there in the past three years.

The United States has seen a 15 percent increase in the number of foreign tourist arrivals, while its recovery as a traveler-sending market has helped Mexico’s 11 percent jump.

In Central America and South America, the amount of international trekkers that traveled there ramped up 19 and 15 percent, respectively.

The highest marks went to Guatemala (34 percent), Panama (20 percent), Nicaragua (16 percent), Argentina (11 percent), Uruguay (29 percent), Chile (17 percent), and Paraguay (15 percent).

In the case of Europe, international arrivals climbed 6 percent as Mediterranean destinations like Italy, France, Spain and Portugal held on to the same numbers posted last year. The payoff was a stronger euro that eventually sent its traditional European markets out to the Caribbean, Mexico and Brazil.

WTO experts believe positive results in Europe has also made long-haul travel from the U.S. and Japan snap back significantly.

As to Asia, China has turned out to be the strongest tourist-sending market there with 20.2 million trippers journeying abroad, up an astounding 82 percent increase until May. The top beneficiaries of this emerging travel power are Hong Kong and Macao with 58 and 36 percent increments, respectively.