World travelers less wary of terror

updated 1:01 p.m. ET Nov. 6, 2006

MADRID - World tourism demand will cool slightly next year but still record a third straight year of healthy growth as travelers become less wary of threats like terrorism, the World Tourism Organization said on Monday.

The Madrid-based United Nations organization said it expected tourism demand to grow at 4.6 percent this year and 4.0 percent in 2007, led by the emerging markets of Africa and Asia and the Pacific.

“Travelers have generally been undeterred by external threats and have moreover developed a certain immunity to such threats,” the UNWTO’s four-monthly report said.

In the first 8 months of the year tourist arrivals were up 4.5 percent or 578 million, compared with 553 million in the same period a year earlier, the WTO said. It gave the following breakdown.

GLOBAL TOURISM Percent rise, Jan.-Aug. 06 Percent rise, full-year est. World 4.5 4.6 Europe 3.1 3.4 Asia/Pacific 8.3 7.7 Americas 2.5 2.5 Africa 9.8 10.6 Middle East 6.0 7.2

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