Following a year of global recovery in 2010, tourism growth is expected to continue for the tourism sector in 2011 but at a slower pace.
UNWTO forecasts international tourist arrivals to grow four percent to five percent in 2011, a rate slightly above the long-term average.
Persistent high unemployment remains a major concern, with the gradual recovery in employment expected for 2011 still too weak to compensate for the jobs lost during the economic crisis.
The recent tendency towards introducing and increasing taxation on travel as a means of balancing public accounts represents a further challenge to the sector, UNWTO said.
Improved economic conditions in 2010 worldwide helped international tourism to recover faster than expected from the impacts of the global financial crisis and economic recession of late 2008 and 2009.
International tourist arrivals were up by 6.7% compared to 2009, with positive growth reported in all world regions.
Worldwide, the number of international tourist arrivals reached 935 million, up 58 million from 2009 and 22 million more than the pre-crisis peak level of 2008 (913 million).
While all regions posted growth in international tourist arrivals, emerging economies remain the main drivers of this recovery.
This multi-speed recovery, lower in advanced economies (+5%), faster in emerging ones (+8%), is a reflection of the broader global economic situation and is set to dominate 2011 and the foreseeable future.
UNWTO secretary-general, Taleb Rifai said, “The challenge now will be to consolidate this growth over the coming years amid a still uncertain global economic environmentâ€.
Asia (+13%) was the first region to recover and the strongest growing region in 2010. International tourist arrivals into Asia reached a new record at 204 million last year, up from 181 million in 2009.
Among the top outbound tourism markets in terms of expenditure abroad, emerging economies continued to drive growth:
China (+17%), the Russian Federation (+26%), Saudi Arabia (+28%) and Brazil (+52%) led the way.
Of the traditional source markets, Australia (+9%), Canada (+8%), Japan (+7%) and France (+4%) rebounded, while more modest growth at 2% came from the USA, Germany and Italy.
On the opposite side of the spectrum, expenditure abroad from the UK was still down by 4% in 2010.
