The UNWTO report 'World Tourism Barometer' says that in 2008, the number of people visiting other countries increased by only 2% compared to 2007, mainly due to active travel at the beginning of the year, reports Gazeta.Ru citing Interfax. In the second half of last year, the number of people wanting to visit other countries decreased significantly.
Thus, in the last six months of 2008 compared to the same period in 2007, the number of tourists to Europe and Asia decreased by 3%, the document says.
UNWTO experts attribute the slowdown in tourism growth to the financial crisis and other global economic shocks. They fear that this trend will continue into 2009, reports the UN News Service.
According to UNWTO, in 2008 the most positive results were shown by Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama, Uruguay, Indonesia, Egypt, India, Jordan, Lebanon, Macau (China), Morocco, South Korea and Turkey.