BRIC countries will emerge as new destinations with growth of tourist arrivals from crisis-ridden Europe being stagnated, Secretary General of United Nations World Tourism Organisation said here today.
The international tourist arrivals, which has touched 1.035 billion (that represents more than one trillion dollars in revenue term excluding travelling cost) with 4 per cent growth over 2011, may witness a growth of 3.5 to 4 per cent this year, Taleb Rifai said.
"Europe is one of the most important sources of tourism in the world. They send lot of tourists. When their economy becomes complicated the world economy becomes complicated," Rifai told PTI on the sidelines of a conference.
"But fortunately the world tourism is compensated by the new areas such as China, Russia, India and Brazil. These are the emerging destinations sending more and more tourists making up to some extent of the drop in demand that is caused in Europe," he said.
UNWTO Commission's Conference on Sustainable Tourism Development and 25th Joint Meeting of the UNWTO Commission for East Asia, Pacific and South Asia began here today.
"The whole world is going to experience more modest growth - may be half a point to one point less than the last year. When you have high rates of growth year after year the rates of growth tend to become smaller and smaller," Rifai said when asked about the expected drop in international tourists arrivals this year.
