Traveling Remains One of the Most Popular Types of Leisure
50 years ago only 20 million people chose to spend their vacation abroad. According to the World Tourist Organization (WTO), in 2007 the army of pilgrims made up almost 900 million people all over the world. Increase in prices for petrol, as well as economic problems in the USA prevented this indicator from achieving the number of one billion.
In its report “World Tourism Barometer”, the WTO informs that the number of travelers has increased by 100 million people during the last two years. Europe was the most popular place with tourists in 2007. It was visited by more than half of all holiday-makers i.e. 480 million people (19 million more than the last year). The main inflow of tourists was assured by Turkey, Greece, Portugal, Italy and Switzerland.
Other travelers have dispersed themselves over more exotic continents. The Near East became the last year’s leader of increase in the number of tourists that made up 13.4%. It was visited by 46 million people. It is followed by Asian and Pacific region with the increase of 10.2%. The number of tourists who visited Northern American and African countries has increased by six and three million people respectively. According to the WTO experts, although highly developed countries remain the main tourism centers, “third world” greets its guests with increasing hospitality and may soon press the Elderly Europe.
As regards perspectives of tourism, there are no reasons for concern. People’s interest towards their close and distant neighbors, their wish to join to another culture, change the surroundings, broader their mental outlook or merely lie in the sun shall continue for a long time. Therefore, tourism shall remain one of the most popular types of leisure. However, the WTO warns us, that despite the high potential of the tourism market, its rate of growth may slow down in 2008, first, due to economic shocks in the USA, and second, due to high prices for energy resources. Increase in prices for airplane tickets makes a lot of people stay at home.
In spite of the slight stagnation of the growth of the touristic branch all over the world, the prognoses tell us that the tourism growth will be constant.
Iuri Tarabanov writes about interesting travel experiences. His Travel stories site is http://www.tripspirit.com.
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