Fueled mainly by Asia's economic recovery, global tourism grew by 3.2 per cent in 1999, slightly faster than in 1998, according to the World Tourism Organization.
International tourist arrivals reached 657 million, slightly lower than the 665 million the organization projected for the year last fall. Total earnings from tourism last year also rose by 3.2 per cent from the year before to reach $455-billion (U.S.) after two years of flat growth.
"The Asia-Pacific region was once again the star of world tourism in 1999, reaching a growth rate of 7.5 per cent and a new record total of 94-million international tourists," said WTO secretary-general Francesco Frangialli when the results were released.
Other tourism hot spots last year included Central America (23 per cent increase in arrivals), the Middle East (17.5 per cent increase), South America (10 per cent increase), and Africa (9 per cent growth).
The organization reported that countries in the western Mediterranean profited in 1999 as tourists shunned destinations close to the conflict in Kosovo and avoided Turkey because of political problems and earthquakes. International arrivals in Spain, for example, rose by almost 9 per cent, and in Morocco by nearly 22 per cent. Countries near Yugoslavia, like Hungary (13.8 per cent drop in arrivals) and Croatia (down 17.3 per cent) saw tourists stay away in droves.
The much-hyped boom in year-end travel failed to materialize, resulting in actual totals that were somewhat lower than the estimates the WTO released last fall.
"There was no Y2K bug and there was no boom in travel," said Frangialli. "There was no mass fever to travel to exotic locations for the millennium, nor to attend special parties with outlandish prices but, since many people don't believe the millennium starts until 2001, maybe the travel industry will get a second chance."
WTO figures show that Africa enjoyed a remarkable increase of 9 per cent in tourist arrivals in 1999 over 1998, nearly three times the world average. The countries showing the greatest growth were Morocco (22 per cent), Zimbabwe (17 per cent) and Zambia (26 per cent). Smaller increases were posted by the popular tourist destinations of South Africa (3.2 per cent) and Tunisia (3 per cent).
The organization said tourism growth in the Americas, at 3.8 per cent just above the world average, was due mainly to sluggish results in the region's top three destinations: the United States (1.3 per cent), Mexico (2 per cent), and Canada (3.8 per cent). South and Central America fared much better, especially Argentina (23 per cent), Guatemala (29 per cent) and El Salvador (26 per cent).
Results in the Caribbean were mixed. Cuba (16 per cent growth in arrivals) and the Dominican Republic (up 12.6 per cent) were the big winners; Puerto Rico, with a drop of 10.4 per cent, the biggest loser.
The most dramatic story in world tourism last year was the recovery of East Asia and the Pacific region, attracting nearly five million more tourists in 1999 than the previous record set in 1996. Growth was widespread with especially good results in Singapore (11 per cent growth over 1998), Japan (9.6 per cent), South Korea (9.6 per cent), Malaysia (8 per cent), China (7.9 per cent), Hong Kong (9 per cent), and Thailand (5.6 per cent). There were no figures available for Indonesia, but tourist arrivals no doubt plummeted because of violence and political instability.
The Middle East is one of the world's smallest tourist regions, receiving only 18 million visitors last year, but it had the fastest growth rate with arrivals up by 17.5 per cent over 1998. Egypt, with half the regional total, posted a phenomenal 40-per-cent increase and a record number of arrivals that far exceeded totals achieved before the terrorist attack on tourists at Luxor. Syria also fared well in 1999, with arrivals growing by almost 10 per cent.
In South Asia, tourism growth was generally sluggish, with the exception of Sri Lanka (16-per-cent increase in arrivals) and the Maldives (10 per cent).
