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Tourist woes cost 6.6 million jobs
By Marianne Bray
(CNN) -- A global tourist slump sparked by terror attacks and an economic downturn has cost one in twelve of the industry's workers, or 6.6 million people, their jobs in the last two years. A report released by the International Labor Office (ILO) on Tuesday showed the once thriving sector was sidelined in 2001 and 2002, with little signs of a turnaround before 2005. While tourism boomed in many parts of the world for several years, spurting along at four percent or more, a downturn that began in early 2001 was exacerbated by the September 11 terror attacks on America, followed by the Bali bombings a year later. "The expected recovery of the tourism industry in 2002 simply did not occur," said Juan Somavia, Director-General of the ILO. In 2001, the global tourist industry skidded, falling into negative territory, between -1 and -5 percent, according to the ILO. And as war clouds loom over Iraq, and the global economy shudders, analysts are not optimistic, saying there may be a modest recovery in 2003 but only minimal job gains. China wins
Amid ongoing global uncertainty, experts say many tourists are ditching the desire to travel to faraway, exotic hotspots to find "sea, sand and sun." "Developing countries will face a particular challenge in order to compensate for a decline in long distance travel", said Somavia. Bali, for one, is targeting neighbors Singapore and Malaysia, as well as visitors from Indonesia's main island of Java, to make up for a dwindling number of tourists from Japan, Australia and other Western markets. And while some countries, such as America and nations in the Middle East, have been hard hit as people chose to stay close to home, not all nations have suffered. More tourists visited China, Vietnam Croatia, Cyprus, Slovenia and Turkey as travelers from neighboring nations decided to skip their long-haul travel plans. China in particular, fared well, with its annual revenue from tourism climbing 12.7 percent in recent years, much faster than the country's gross domestic product, which grew by an average rate of 7.4 per cent. Southern European countries were also winners in 2001, probably because they gave a convenient alternative to long-haul destinations on the continent. U.S. hit
The United States suffered the most post September 11, with the number of tourists tumbling by more than 30 percent compared to the previous year, the report says. Travel expenditure in the country dropped by 5.8 per cent in 2001, while employment in the whole industry was down 5.8 per cent, with an estimated 1.1 million jobs lost. Two-thirds of the estimated 760,000 expected job losses for 2002 in U.S. metropolitan areas were in travel, tourism and related sectors, the report said. Countries near the United States also suffered with Canada, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Mexico and Jamaica all taking massive hits in visitors. Meanwhile nations associated with security risks not necessarily connected to the September 11 events were also in pain, including Egypt, Nepal and Sri Lanka. Morocco's tourist industry recorded a 43 per cent revenue drop in January 2002 compared to January 2001.
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