World Tourism Organisation reports increase in international tourism

The year 2007 has started on a higher than expected note for global tourism. From January through April, international tourist arrivals worldwide rose by over six percent to 252 million, representing an additional 15 million arrivals as against the same period in 2006, according to the latest World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO) World Tourism Barometer Asia and the Pacific (up nine percent) achieved the strongest growth, followed by Africa (up eight percent), the Middle East (also up eight percent) and Europe (up six percent).

Although arrivals to the Americas (up four percent), showed the slowest growth rate among the world regions during the first four months of 2007, this World Tourism Organisation reports increase in international tourismperformance is nevertheless very positive as the region doubled the 2007 forecast growth (ETN Travel).