Travel to the Caribbean last year increased by 8%, although it was a year in which overall international tourism arrivals fell 1.2% — the biggest annual drop ever, according to the World Tourism Organization statistics for 2003. Travel to the Dominican Republic last year was up overall by 14.5%.
Preliminary estimates of full-year results, published in the WTO World Tourism Barometer, determine that international arrivals slid by the previously mentioned 1.2% to 694 million, some 8.5 million less than in 2002. Travel in 2003 was affected by the Iraqi conflict, SARS and a persistently weak economy, explained WTO Secretary General Francesco Frangialli.
WTO Chief of Market Intelligence Augusto Huescar in a press conference announcement during FITUR in Madrid, forecast a much brighter outlook for 2004. The prognosis for this year is generally optimistic, based essentially on positive signs of recovery in the economies of the US, Japan and Western Europe and reduced conflicts. The large pent-up demand for travel is bound to express itself as soon as circumstances allow, according to the leading decision-makers and analysts on the WTO World Tourism Barometer panel, said Huescar.
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