| Synopsis: |
As part of a series of annual reports which analyse trends in international tourism, this volume focuses on regional and subregional tourism flows and earnings through 2002 in Europe as a whole, and by individual country. It looks at arrivals, receipts, hotel capacity, and major source markets. Europe is, by far, the world's most visited region for international tourism, with 57 per cent of all arrivals. Tourism has grown steadily over the last decade, although at a rate 0.8 per cent lower than the world average, and has a strong base of intra-regional traffic. During 2002, the region picked up from the impact of the September 11 2001 terrorist attacks and the decrease in long haul traffic from the Americas, with a growth in arrivals of 2.3 per cent (which was, however, below the world average and the Europe's historic tourism average). The rebound was influenced by a number of other factors including continuing political tensions and world economic conditions, the adoption of the euro currency in 12 of the 15 EU member states and flooding in some Central European countries. The UK in particular recorded positive improvements for 2002 to record a 5.9 per cent increase in arrivals. |