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Asia tourism set to boom
WTTC Summit Special: The list of top ten countries that will see the biggest gains in tourism this year is topped by Montenegro, closely followed by China and India.
Consistent with last year’s WTTC forecast, China and India are set for phenomenal tourism growth in 2005 and beyond, according to WTTC.
Montenegro tops the table following a dedicated strategy by the country’s tourism authorities to boost visitor numbers and invest in tourism infrastructure, according to WTTC. However, actual numbers of tourists remain comparatively low and the country’s share of global tourism in negligible according to WTTC figures.
China and India, on the other hand are set to be major players.
China is expected to grow travel and tourism demand by 10% in 2005 to take a 4.3% chunk of global tourism and travel. The country continues to increase its investment in tourism infrastructure according to WTTC executive vice president, Richard Miller.
And there was good news for India, which is playing host to the WTTC Summit this week, as demand for tourism is expected to grow by 11% in 2005 to take a 0.72% share of global tourism.
The share of India’s GDP contributed by travel and tourism has potential to increase from an expected 2.1% in 2005, according to Mr Miller. “India has space to grow,” he said.
The region taking the highest share of global tourism in 2005 will be the European Union, with a 36.6% share, followed by North America, with a 30.3% share. But Mr Miller warned that these markets are mature, characterized by slow growth in tourism, while South Asia, which includes India, and Central and Eastern Europe will be characterized by high levels of growth, he said.
The figures were compiled with the help of Oxford Economic Forecasting, an organisation which has worked with WTTC to compile tourism information from 174 countries using data from national accounts rather than measuring visitor arrivals alone.
The UK is forecast to increase visitor demand by 5.7% in 2005, according to WTTC, generating over one million jobs and taking a 5.7% of the global market share of tourism.
Report by Ginny McGrath
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