Dear LP#B,
This is just FYI about tourism business (From Asia Times
Article )
Regards,
Sydarma
--------------------------------------------
Global Economy
Tough times for the global tourism sector
GENEVA - Millions of jobs in the world tourism sector have
been lost due to political turmoil, the global economic
downturn and growing unease among many travelers with
little prospect of any recovery in employment in the
sector before 2005, according to a new report by the
International Labor Office (ILO).
The new ILO report entitled Impact of the 2001-2002 Crisis
on the Hotel and Tourism Industry, available on the ILO
website, said that during 2001 and 2002, tourism-related
businesses shed some 6.6 million jobs worldwide - putting
one out of every 12 workers in the sector out of a job.
"The expected recovery of the tourism industry in 2002
simply did not occur," said Juan Somavia, Director-General
of the ILO. "After several years of 4 percent growth or
more, stagnant demand for travel and tourism last year
caused a continued loss of jobs with no sign of a
turnaround in 2003".
The ILO will hold a regional tripartite meeting on
employment in the tourism industry of the Asia Pacific
region in Bangkok, May 13-15, to address the issue of jobs
and travel.
The problems facing tourism have had negative consequences
in many countries. Conversely, some countries, including
China, Croatia, Cyprus, Slovenia, Turkey, Vietnam and
others have reported higher numbers of foreign tourists,
apparently due to an influx of travelers from nearby
countries who are opting to say closer to home on their
holidays rather than visit far-flung places requiring
long-haul travel.
As a result, while industry officials believe there may be
a modest recovery for the travel and tourism sector in
2003, they are forecasting only minimal job gains. This
means the year will likely end with a total of 6.4 million
jobs lost since the beginning of the downturn, the ILO
said.
Factors hampering a recovery are fears of more attacks on
tourists such as those that occurred in Bali and Kenya in
2002, as well as political developments in the Middle East
and elsewhere, changing consumer travel preferences and
the general state of the global economy, the ILO report
said.
According to the report, the hotel and tourism industry
has been suffering from the combined effects of a general
economic downturn that began in early 2001 and the shock
wave from the September 11, 2001 attacks in the United
States. While economic recession had already brought down
the industry's previously strong 4.5 percent annual growth
rate to well below 4 percent, the industry's growth rate
plunged for the whole year 2001 into negative territory
between -1 and -5 percent.
In 2001, receipts from cross-border tourism dropped by 5.1
percent at constant US dollar prices and the number of
international tourist arrivals worldwide fell by 0.6
percent. The worst losses were felt in the Middle East and
the Americas, particularly North America, where
international tourist arrivals were down by 6.8 percent in
the whole year 2001, but as much as 22.6 percent in the
last four months of that year compared to equivalent
periods of 2000.
New tourism trends also show an inclination of travelers
to stay closer to home. Experts agree that patterns such
as "sea, sand and sun"- and particularly the desire of
many tourists to travel to faraway, exotic destinations -
are likely going out of fashion. "Developing countries
will face a particular challenge in order to compensate
for a decline in long distance travel", said Somavia. Bali
is a good example: After the terrorist attack, the
island's tourism industry is trying to make up for the
declining number of tourists from Japan, Australia and
Western markets by attracting budget tourists from
neighboring countries like Singapore and Malaysia, as well
as domestic visitors from Indonesia's main island of Java.
One of the tourism markets most affected by the September
11 terror attacks is that of the United States, with
international tourist arrivals having fallen on average
more than 30 percent from the level of the same period the
previous year, the report said. Travel expenditure dropped
by 5.8 percent in 2001. There was still no recovery in
consumer expenditure levels on travel in the US in 2002
(-0.4 percent). Although overall travel expenditures in
the US are expected to rise by 5 percent in 2003, reaching
the mark of US$555.6 million, this result would be still
below that of the year 2000.
In the United States alone, employment in the whole
industry was down 5.8 percent in 2001, with an estimated
1.1 million jobs lost. Two-thirds of the estimated 760,000
expected job losses for 2002 in US metropolitan areas are
in travel, tourism and related sectors.
Countries near the United States also received
significantly fewer tourists in 2001 than at the same time
of the year before, eg Canada (-19 percent), Cuba (-26
percent), the Dominican Republic (-25 percent), Mexico
(-24 percent) and Jamaica (-20 percent).
In Europe, countries expecting a high proportion of
tourists originating from the United States experienced
steep declines in international tourism in 2001, including
the United Kingdom (-12 percent), Germany (-17 percent),
Switzerland (-16 percent), Italy (-11 percent) and Austria
(-9 percent). Elsewhere, the Philippines (-25 percent) and
Australia (-21 percent) registered double-digit declines.
Other countries experienced a significant drop in their
2001 total tourist numbers because, rightly or wrongly,
they were associated with security risks not necessarily
connected to the September 11 events. These countries
included Egypt (-16 percent), Nepal (-22 percent) and Sri
Lanka (-16 percent). Morocco's tourist industry recorded a
43 percent revenue drop in January 2002 compared to
January 2001.
Among the rare winners in 2001 were countries in Southern
Europe, a region that continues to receive higher numbers
of foreign tourists than in previous years, probably
because they provide a convenient alternative to long-haul
destinations for many European tourists. Thus Turkey (+12
percent), Croatia (+12 percent), Slovenia (+11 percent),
Spain (+3 percent), Greece (+2 percent) and Cyprus (+1
percent) all benefited in 2001.
Another winner was China, which experienced an impressive
growth in both domestic and inbound tourism. Total annual
revenue from tourism has grown on average by 12.7 percent
over recent years, much faster than the country's gross
domestic product, which grew by an average rate of 7.4
percent.
ILO News)
Jan 31, 2003
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