Asia: Driving force of global tourism

While travelers in the United States and Europe are expected to postpone vacation plans, which is expected to adversely affect the growth of world tourism, Asia is now considered as the "driving force" of global tourism.

"North America and Europe are undoubtedly suffering more. The economic situation in Asia is still better, although the growth of the industry will not grow as fast as average," said United National World Tourism Organization (UN-WTO) secretary-general Francesco Frangialli.

The global financial crisis is sending worries to world tourism leaders due to reduced spending among European and American travelers affected by the financial slump.

Asia comprises about 27 percent of the world's tourism. Asian destinations will benefit on the growing number of intra-regional (Asian) travelers, especially from China.

He said last year alone, 40 million Chinese traveled outside of their country, mostly visited Asian destinations, including the Philippines.

Frangialli said that Asia should not worry as much, following the recent announcement made by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) that the region is expected to post nine percent to 11 percent growth in tourism next year, while outside Asia such as US and Europe are expected to have zero growth.

In fact, China is expected to overtake France, as the top visited destination in the world, by 2020.

Frangialli said although tourism experts maintain favorable views on the sector, in the short- term outlook, "we are worried but we are not giving in to panic."

He said the "global economy is going through the most severe period of turbulence" that has been affecting the spending behavior of the world travelers, especially those coming from rich economies in the US and Europe.

"The international financial crisis that is shaking the markets is having an increasing impact on what is called the real economy," said Frangialli

The French tourism leader-Frangialli said intra-regional tourism comprised 80 percent of the tourism in the greater parts of Asia, and this could well save the industry in the region from slumping amid the financial woes in other parts of the world.

Frangialli is leading close to 300 Parliamentarians and senior tourism executives attending the five-day international event from 135 countries.

In the Philippines, while US market has been one of the largest foreign markets, now its rank went down to number 15, overtaken by Asian foreign travelers, like Koreans and Chinese.