The U.N. World Tourism Organization says global tourism could decline by up to 2 percent in 2009 amid the financial crisis. The Madrid-based organization says Europe and the Americas will be the most affected.
The UNWTO said in a statement Tuesday the world’s most advanced economies are seeing their first major contraction since World War II and the organization "expects 2009 international tourism to be in the range of 0 percent to a 2 percent decline."
The downturn follows four years of sustained growth, with a 7 percent rise a year on average between 2004 and 2007. Tourist arrivals worldwide during 2008 rose to 924 million, 2 percent higher than the previous year.
