Holidays to China to grow fastest
[25th June 2008]
International travellers are projected to almost double by 2020 says the World Tourism Organisation, and the biggest increases will be in China, India and south-east Asia.
As well as becoming a major holiday destination, China will also provide lots of tourists for other countries. The appetite for travel in China is huge, with 1.6 billion trips in the country in 2006. And Chinese tourists spent around $30 billion abroad in 2007 according to UNWTO figures.
Speaking at the UK Tourism Society Conference, UNWTO assistant secretary-general Geoffrey Lipman said: “It is fair to assume that this growth scenario will suffer from the economic downturn and more than fair to say that massive prolonged increases in fuel price, with few short term options (at least for airlines), as well as other ‘mega crises’ will have a fundamental depressant effect”.
“But the numbers of potential travellers are so huge and the logic of targeting tourism for development so pervasive that the long term growth prospects will remain substantial by any measure,” Lipman added.
Between 1996 and 2006, international tourism in developing countries expanded by 6% as a whole. The increase was 9% for the least developed countries, and 8% for other low and lower-middle income economies.
Summarising the conference, chairman of the Tourism Society, Alison Cryer, said: “World tourism is at a cross-roads and the UK is well placed to take advantage of the new era. There is clearly a lot we must do to ensure that the UK remains a global must-see destination”.
“The 2012 Olympics provides us with an opportunity to re-establish the UK on the world stage and we need to work together to improve the offering we provide to ensure that through events such as this, emerging and current markets pay,” Cryer concluded.
Written by: Nick Purdom
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