Travel Slowdown Coming, But It's Brighter Ahead

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Travel Slowdown Coming, But It's Brighter Ahead

By Craig Altschul
March 17, 2008

So, here's the state of world travel and tourism: The global economic downturn only will have a moderate impact on the industry in 2008. But, a steady phase of growth rallying from 2009 to 2018. That's the prognosis from a just-released study by the World Travel and Tourism Council.

The report predicts a drop from 2007's growth rate of 3.9 percent to 3 percent this year. All we have to do is hunker down, weather the story and then look for an average growth rate of 4.4 percent per annum.

Guess who caused the current dip: It was us, of course. "Challenges come from the U.S. slowdown and the weak dollar, higher fuel costs, and concerns about climate change," says WTTC President Jean-Claude Baumgarten. The big winner? China. It will leapfrog Japan and Germany from fourth to second position (behind the U.S., by the way) and will increase its visitor business ten-fold by 2018.

The report indicated that, even in countries where economic growth slows, there is likely to be a switch from international to domestic travel, rather than a lessening of a demand for tourism travel.

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