Euro-Asia Forum - Strives to Strengthen Tourism（在线收听）

The United Nations World Tourism Organization has released a report indicating the healthy growth of international tourism in the first half of 2011. But with the current euro zone crisis threatening to have an impact on major world economies and send them into another recession, how will the tourism industry be affected? Will it too catch a cold?

Nillah Nyakoa takes a look.

 
In China's cultural city of Xian, high-level government authorities met with their peers and other tourism industry stakeholders from Euro-Asian member states to discuss the further development and preservation of major tourist destination sites in their respective countries.

Their main goal was to increase visitor numbers and minimize the effect of the dismal world economy on the global tourism industry.
 
A good example is Xian which has seen its tourism industry flourish despite national inflation and the threat of potential recession following the euro zone crisis.

Willem Decio is a tourist from Italy who just arrived in Xi'an on a three-month tour of Asia. Although he says the current crisis in his country has had no impact on his travel plans, European governments should be worried if the stalemate is not soon resolved as it may trigger a drop in the tourism sector.

"Personally, I can see it probably won't. But I can see that it will affect quite a proportion of people who will think twice about making a long overseas trip which always costs a lot of money. And if things get a little tighter in Europe and in the euro zone, travel is one of the things that will suffer."

The good news is experts are predicting a rise in global tourism despite the euro zone crisis which may affect most world economies.

The United Nations World Tourism Organization this year has predicted that China will become the world's leading travel destination in the next five to seven years–citing the country's diverse culture, heritage sites and culinary arts.

Experts like Peter Stone, a histroy professor at the University of Newcastle, says China has a wealth of history that is enough to attract more tourists. Speaking at the recent Euro-Asia Economic Forum, Stone said many countries would have little to worry about if they played it safe and encouraged local tourism as the world economy gradually falls back into order.

"It will have a different impact in different places. One trend that seems to be happening is instead of people traveling further they are staying within their own region. So more people in Europe are staying in Europe, and people in Asia are staying in Asia. But at the moment, all of the statistics, all of the financial information, points to the fact that people are still traveling, and people are still visiting sites."

Stone says a cultural heritage protection and tourism development session at the Euro-Asia Economic Forum was just in time to encourage governments and stakeholders in the BRIC nations (Brazil, Russia, India and China) to market and encourage local tourism in their respective countries.

"The essential message is that while that balance is very important and very crucial, it is what we do with the site that is the most important."

At the end of the two-day forum, the delegates said they hoped various stakeholders had shared enough information to ensure that the tourism industries in their respective countries would not catch a cold should the world fall into another recession.

For CRI, I'm Nillah Nyakoa.