The InterDependent

As the summer travel season goes into high gear, good news for the global tourist trade is coming from the United Nations World Tourism Organization. Despite a lingering recession, unemployment and upheaval in the Middle East and North Africa, 2011 is off to a good start, led by a 17 percent growth in visitors to South America in the first four months of this year.

Tourism in Asia – except for post-earthquake Japan – also grew from January to April. South Asia, with India at its center, had 14 percent more visitors during the same period compared with 2010. Visitors to Southeast Asia grew by 10 percent. South and Southeast Asian destinations are most popular in northern winter months, but growth there and elsewhere is expected to continue through the year.

Worldwide, between January and April, 268 million international tourism arrivals were recorded, according to the Madrid-based World Tourism Organization (which uses the initials UNWTO to avoid confusion with the World Trade Organization). The recovery began in 2010, after a 2009 slump.

Europe surprised the tourism organization’s experts with a 6 percent rate of growth, led by northern, eastern and southern European regions, even though the January to April period was mostly colder months there. In sub-Saharan Africa, there was an 8 percent jump in visitors.

John Penney

Castle of the Moors in Sintra, Portugal, built sometime in the eighth or ninth century. Surprisingly, tourism in Europe was up 6 percent from January to April, normally a slow time because of the cold weather. South America led in attracting the most tourists in that period.

The news was predictably bad in North Africa and the Middle East, where tourist arrivals fell by 11 percent and 7 percent, respectively. The loss of tourism following pro-democracy protests that overthrew governments in Tunisia and Egypt has been a cause of concern for those economies. Tourists in both countries were a major source of income.

Libya, still in dangerous turmoil, was not a tourist destination by comparison, but the war there may be having an added negative effect on neighboring Egypt and Tunisia as people from outside the region weigh the possibility of traveling to those countries. The tourism organization’s Middle East experts are the least optimistic of all regions about the rest of this year.

Europe and the Americas, however, can expect a strong summer season, the organization predicts, based on reports from those regions.

The World Tourism Organization is a small specialized UN agency, less well known than international commercial bodies representing tourist industries globally. With 154 nation members, it functions as an institution where policies are discussed or formulated; for example, in environmentally sustainable travel and ethical standards for the industry. It also gives practical help to countries and private sector companies, especially in developing countries. (Libya, with untapped historical sites and natural attractions, once asked the agency for help, but then never really opened to visitors in large numbers.)

The agency, with regional offices around the world, also works with educational programs and local tourism officials who need advice on developing and promoting potential tourist attractions. Courses and workshops are offered periodically.

At a time when some people in developing nations are wary of fostering international tourism because of damage they believe can be done to both cultures and natural environments, the World Tourism Organization takes the position that economic growth and employment opportunities should be considered positive factors when eco-friendly and appropriately scaled tourism development is encouraged, particularly in small countries with little infrastructure.

John Penney

The Ha'penny Bridge spanning the Liffey River in Dublin in the wintertime.

With public support and good planning, governments can limit tourist growth – rejecting bids from very large hotel chains or casino operators, for example – yet create jobs and increase income from the tourism.

One recent example of a careful move away from isolation to a gradual opening to outsiders has taken place in the Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan. Once closed to the outside world, it gradually developed a controlled tourist industry that limited the numbers of visitors and set high mandatory fees for fairly rugged travel in the country. Hotels, mostly small, were locally owned. After a decade or two without serious problems, the Bhutanese allowed tourism to expand while keeping it relatively costly, unashamedly to deter mass tourism, which had changed the atmosphere of nearby Nepal. Bhutan now has several superluxurious Aman resorts, well known across Asia, as well as locally owned Bhutanese hotels of equal comfort but more character.

Not every country would want to take that frankly elitist path, chosen to preserve a unique and endangered Tibetan Buddhist heritage and a pristine environment. But the Bhutanese experience underlines the World Tourism Organization’s advice that successful tourism does not necessarily mean being overrun by unmanageable numbers, fast food and T-shirt shops.