Page 48 - Introduction to Tourism

As tourism has grown, it has moved from being

the province of the rich to being accessible to the

masses, involving millions of people. The

UNWTO attempts to document tourism’s growth

in their annual publications entitled Tourism

Highlights and Compendium of Tourism
Statistics. Table 1.2 shows UNWTO international

tourist arrival data up to 2006 and the strong
rates of growth for the last several decades

marred only by no growth in 2001 and a
downturn in 2003. UNWTO states that tourism is

the world’s largest growth industry with long-term

signs being very positive. Their study, Tourism

2020 Vision, forecasts that international arrivals

will exceed 1 billion by 2010 and 1.6 billion by

2020. Whether the projections are made by

UNWTO or WTTC, dramatic growth appears to

be in the future forecasts.

UNWTO’s 2003 estimate of 691 million tourist

arrivals was a result of an exceptionally difficult

year in which negative factors came together (the

Iraq war, terrorism fears, the severe acute

respiratory syndrome [SARS], and a persistently

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