World tourism demand continues to exceed expectations, showing resilience against extraneous factors. According to the latest issue of the UNWTO World Tourism Barometer, in the first eight months of 2006 international tourist arrivals totalled 578 million worldwide (+4.5%), up from 553 million in the same period of 2005, a year which saw an all-time record of 806 million people travelling internationally and growth is expected to continue in 2007 at a pace of around 4% worldwide.The expected 4% growth for 2007 is much in line with the UNWTO long-term forecast growth rate of 4.1% a year through 2020.Read more here.
