The World Tourism Organisation (WTO) has announced that, in 2006, tourism hit a new high for the third consecutive year.  2007 looks to be another record-setting year for the world tourism industry.  If you think that would be good news, you would be wrong, according to the WTO’s own director general.  South Africa’s News24 reports:

"Tourism is unfortunately one of the vectors of (climate) change at the moment and contributes, through its excesses, to the process of global warming," World Tourism Organisation (WTO) director general Francesco Frangialli told an international conference on meteorology in Madrid this week.

In 2006, 842 million people took a holiday in a foreign country and 40% of them flew to their destinations. That's 336 million people, or more than the population of the United States, taking trips which spew greenhouse gases that fuel global warming.

Total air transport still only accounts for two percent of carbon dioxide (CO2), the principal greenhouse gas, in the atmosphere, but its contribution is growing and tourism is one of the driving forces behind rising passenger numbers, Frangialli said.

After a little investigation, I discovered that News24 slanted its report just a bit.  WTO’s press release of Mr Frangelli’s speech is posted here.  Besides the discussion of tourism’s role in climate change, a large portion of his speech was devoted to the benefits tourism brings to the world economy.

Tourism has shown to be a strong contributor to the balance of payments, as well as a highly labour-intensive activity that opens up opportunities for the small businesses that provide products and services to the tourism industry. Its impact is particularly strong in the local farming and fishing industries, handicrafts and even the construction industry. In these countries, tourism creates many direct and indirect jobs. It represents fertile ground for private initiative. It serves as a foothold for the development of a market economy where small and medium-sized enterprises can expand and flourish. In poor rural areas, it often constitutes the only alternative to declining subsistence.
. . .
Tourism is one of the major export sectors of poor countries and a leading source of foreign exchange in 46 of the 49 Least Developed Countries.

I guess News24 missed that part of the speech for some reason.

Here are a few highlights from the 2006 tourism economic report.  Despite health scares, rising oil prices, and fears of terrorist attacks, world tourism grew by 4.5% to a total of 842 million arrivals.  Africa saw the highest growth rate, 8.1%, followed by Asia and the Pacific at 7.6%.  A list of the top destinations for international travellers is posted here (2004 data).  France is far in the lead, with almost 10% of all international tourist arrivals.

h/t: Pearcey Report

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