Tourism to top a billion travellers this year

International tourism is forecast to continue growing, but at a slower rate of 3% to 4% reaching an unprecedented billion arrivals by the end of the year, according to PATA Emeritus President & CEO, Lakshman Ratnapala. In a statement, the distinguished Sri Lankanborn travel industry veteran said that emerging economies in Asia are expected to lead the growth followed by the Americas and Europe.

Global tourism is on track to reach the historic milestone one billion mark later this year 2012, having hit new records last year (2011), despite challenging conditions characterized by stalled economies in the major source markets of Europe and the U.S., political upheavals of the 'Arab Spring' and natural disasters in Japan, he said. International tourist arrivals reached a total of 980 million in 2011, up from 939 million in 2010 - a growth of 4 percent. Coming at a time when the global economy needs stimulus to growth and job creation, last year's advances and this year's prospects are encouraging as tourism is directly responsible for 5% of the

Global tourism is on track to reach the historic milestone one billion mark later this year 2012, having hit new records last year (2011), despite challenging conditions characterized by stalled economies in the major source markets of Europe and the U.S., political upheavals of the 'Arab Spring' and natural disasters in Japan

world's GDP, 6% of total exports and employs one out of 12 people.

Quoting the World Tourism Organization, Mr Rat- napala said the Americas saw an increase of six million tourist arrivals in 2011, reaching 156 million in total with North America alone reaching a mark of 100 million. Asia and the Pacific were up 11 million arrivals reaching a total of 216 million. Growth was comparatively weaker, partly due to the decline in the Japanese outbound market.

The Middle East lost an estimated five million tourist arrivals, although some destinations such as Saudi Arabia, Oman and the Emirates sustained steady growth. The best results came from Europe reaching half a billion mark in 2011, accounting for 28 million of the 41 million additional arrivals recorded worldwide. This growth was partly as a result of the shift away from the troubled Middle East and improved outbound flows from Scandinavia, Germany and Russia.

He said income from tourism was also up significantly in the USA (+12%), Spain (+9%), Hong Kong (+25%) and the U.K. (+7%). The top spenders were led by the new emerging markets of China (+38%), Russia (+21%), Brazil (+32%) and India (+32%). They were followed by the traditional high spenders from the USA (+5%) and Germany (+4%), he noted in the statement.