The global travel industry could be on the verge of a post-recession renaissance, according to the UN World Tourism Organisation’s latest forecast.
Officials within the world body have revised their macroeconomic predictions upwards for the sector, painting a rosier picture of the tourism sector in 2010.
Most of the measurements the UN uses to assess global travel trends still point to the industry being in steady decline, with passengers reining in spending.
But as the UK technically remains in a recession that is to be expected, and according to the UN’s Panel of Experts Confidence Index market conditions have improved noticeably.
“Though much uncertainty persists, there are signs indicating that the turning point may also have been reached in the tourism sector,” the global body confirmed.
Noting that the “upward trend” was corroborated by the air transport sector, it added: “Data for July show a relative improvement and, for countries that already reported data for August, these two high-season months have not in general been as depressed as the first six months of the year.”
Overall figures show that there were 500 million international tourist arrivals in the first seven months of 2009.
