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PARIS: Global tourism leaders gather Sunday in Dubai to plot future
strategy for an industry, which, despite a slight downward revision
of annual growth estimates, is easily bucking present economic
trends.
When some 1,000 delegates gather for the World
Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC) summit in the jewel of the United
Arab Emirates—a perfect symbol for the sector’s transformative
power—talk will likely focus on ensuring adequate infrastructure
for future growth and mitigating tourism’s environmental impact.
Airlines, tour operators and hotel chains will
be joined by around 40 government ministers as the WTTC—which
began as a select club in 1990 by the chiefs of Amex, Accor, British
Airways and American Airlines—comes truly of age.
WTTC projections show tourism will this year
generate 5.3 trillion euros ($8.4 trillion) in revenue despite the
revised growth projection of 3 percent compared with 3.9 percent in
2007.
That represents almost 10 percent of the
world’s gross domestic product (GDP), providing employment for 238
million people worldwide.
And all this despite the global credit crunch,
the specter of recession in the United States, surging oil and food
prices and worries over climate change, each of which has played
their part in trimming initial growth projections of 4.6 percent.
“Over the next ten years, we will see an
explosion in activity throughout our sector,” the president of
this London-based organization, Jean-Paul Baumgarten, told AFP.
“It’s up to us to see this industry develop responsibly,” he
added.
By 2018, the WTTC expects annual tourism
expenditure to rise by an average of 4.4 percent.
Baumgarten cites a tourism “boom” fueled by
emerging economic powerhouses in China, India, Russia and the Middle
East, although he recognizes the sector faces its challenges, not
least the carbon footprint left by the ongoing exponential growth in
air travel.
“We are part of the problem because our
industry is responsible for between 11 and 12 percent of (all) CO2
emissions, but we are also part of the solution,” he added, with
an eye on one of the major themes of the Dubai conference, which
runs through Tuesday.
Another major issue up for discussion is the
eternal question of how to develop national tourist infrastructures
in line with demand, with Baumgarten speaking of “great concern”
within his body at the “lack of planning (shown) by the majority
of governments around the world.”
Dubai, he said, offers an example to all, with
the UAE government “turning a desert into a destination,” he
added.
Difficulties in recruitment within different
branches of the industry could also put the brakes on its growth,
with Baumgarten saying that the two giants of the sector, the United
States and China, are suffering from a shortage of qualified staff.
-- AFP
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