The United Nations World Tourism Organization recently revealed, that international tourism fell by eight per cent in the first quarter of 2009.
Europe has seen its tourism industry affected more than others, with a 10 per cent decline, while Asia declined 6 per cent and Africa and South America actually grew, by 3 and 0.3 per cent, respectively.
The January predictions of 2 per cent negative growth have now doubled to 4 or even tripled to 6 per cent decline in international tourism this year.
“The negative trend in international tourism that emerged during the second half of 2008 intensified in 2009,” the organization said.
“In view of the rapidly deteriorating global economic situation, economic growth prospects have repeatedly been adjusted downwards over the past six months.”
The United States dropped to second place, and Spain dropped to third place.
Tough times ahead for the tourism industry
Tourism is seriously impacted, given the sharp reduction in business activity, decreasing disposable income and associated increased unemployment, particularly in key tourism source markets. Exchange rate fluctuations have added to the general uncertainty and business and consumer confidence have yet to recover. Furthermore, the level of advanced bookings, coupled with the reduction in airline capacity, make recovery before 2010 difficult.
Excerpt of the UNWTO World Tourism Barometer
Image by rene_ehrhardt under Creative Commons.
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