engleski

Internet. http://www.world-tourism.org/market_research/facts/menu.html.

The World Tourism Organisation is the leading international organization in the field of travel and tourism today. Due to its importance for all involved in the tourism sector we have already written about the WTO in Vol. 48 (1) of Tourism. In the meantime, the WTO has increased its activity and number of members and has become a specialised agency of the United Nations. Furthermore, the WTO has developed and enriched its web-site that is a rich source of information on a range of tourism related issues. Given the importance of the WTO and comprehensiveness of its web-site, the agency is once again in our focus. In 2003, its membership comprised of 143 of the state governments and over 350 affiliate members from the travel and the tourism industry representing local tourism authorities, tourism associations, educational and scientific institutions and private sector. Finally, by becoming a member of the UN and obtaining the status of specialised UN agency in June 2003, the WTO has significantly contributed to the official recognition of tourism as being important to overall social and economic development, alongside other economic sectors such as manufacturing industry, agriculture, transport, education, health, labour and all other human activities already represented by the specialised agencies of the UN. The main task of the WTO is development of responsible, sustainable and universally accessible tourism stimulating business and economic development worldwide while minimizing its negative social and environmental impacts, and fostering peace and understanding between the nations. The WTO serves as a global forum for tourism policy issues and as a practical source of tourism know-how. Today, the WTO has a leading role in promoting technology transfers and international cooperation in tourism sector. The list of current WTO's programme activities presented at their web-site is impressive and includes the World Tourism Day (celebrated on September 27th), Hotel Classification (brand-new joint project with the International Hotel and Restaurant Association), Tourism Enriches Campaign (raise awareness of the positive impacts of tourism on life, culture, economy and society at all levels), Global Code of Ethics (sets out ten-point blueprint for safeguarding the resources upon which tourism depends), Sustainable Tourism Development - Eliminating Poverty (the fight against poverty in less developed parts of the world through encouraging tourism development), Climate Change and Tourism, Tourism Recovery and Crisis Management (define quality-related objectives, standards and measures that can contribute to sustainable development and poverty alleviation). Other projects presented are the Silk Road, Ecotourism, Safety and Security Issues, Liberalization with a Human Face, Child Prostitution in Tourism Watch, International Network for the Sustainable Development of Coastal Destinations, Tourism Communications – TOURCOM, Tourism Legislation Database - LEXTOUR, Tourism Information and Documentation Resource Centres Database – INFODOCTOUR and TedQual Certification. However, besides these projects, one of the leading activities of the WTO is collecting and publishing statistical data in tourism. The WTO is providing the world's most comprehensive tourism statistics. Their databases include arrivals, overnight stays, receipts, expenditure, mode of transport, length of stay, origin of visitors, accommodation capacities etc. from 190 countries around the world. In June 2003, the WTO has started to publish a new quarterly magazine of crucial importance for tourism sector - the Barometer (a shorter version is available on-line free on charge under the "Facts and figures"). The Barometer consists of three sections: the last relevant statistical data about international tourist flows by countries and tourism regions world-wide, selected economic data relevant for tourism sector and, probably the most important section – attitudes of tourism experts about expected tourism development in the world and in their own countries. The first issue of the Barometer published this year – (Vol.2 (1)) contains data about international tourism flows realised over the entire last year (the previous editions were not complete as data was only available for certain months and for only those countries that have submitted their national data to the WTO). The remainder of this reviewer features the overview of main tourism indicators available in the Barometer. According to the WTO information published in the last issue of Barometer, in 2003, international tourism was once again affected by some unexpected events: the Iraq conflict, SARS and generally persistently week economies, but despite all these difficulties, tourism continued to grow. International tourist arrivals reached 694 million in 2003 , what is an increase of 1.2% over the previous year. However, there were, as always, winners and losers. The greatest losers were Asia and Pacific region affected by SARS while Europe has, with 402 million international tourist arrivals, retained its position from the previous year. Within Europe there was also a change in travel patterns. Due to the unusually hot and dry summer, more Northerners were staying at home or closer to home, what affected arrivals in the south parts of Europe. Distribution of tourist flows within Europe was also affected by the exchange rates of USD or GBP to euro with eurozone loosing the competitiveness to other destinations. Some countries, like Croatia, Slovenia, Turkey, UK and Ireland benefited from these trends, while traditional southern European holiday destinations, like France, Italy, Spain and Portugal, recorded decrease in international tourist arrivals over the previous year. The last issue of the Barometer is also useful for giving an indication of global market trends for which purpose the WTO conducts an email survey "Panel of Tourism Experts". The panel consists of selected representatives from public and private sector organisations and companies. The survey is repeated every four months . The number experts included in the panel is constantly increasing - in the last Barometer survey published in June Vol. 2(2) over 230 experts from more than 100 countries were included. By expert opinion tourism is finally showing signs of recovery through increasing late booking trend. In spite of the brutal terrorist attack in Madrid, Spain has realised increase in number of tourism arrivals, and results in tourism are overall positive. Low cost airlines continue to increase capacity and expand their regional coverage reaching more and more destinations. Long-haul travel is finally also picking up, particularly out of Europe, but short-haul and domestic travel are still performing comparatively better. Expected growth of tourism might slow down only the high-energy prices that will have an influence on air travel prices and package prices. There is consensus about the expecting continuation of the resurgence of travel in the leading generating markets in Europe. The major events in Europe such as the Olympic Summer Games in Greece, European Football Championship in Portugal are expected to influence tourist flows in Europe. Most experts believe that these events will shift traffic flows from period when these events will take place to other periods. As customers continued to be more sensitive to price, the exchange rates of euro will influence an increase in demand for some destinations (Southern and East Mediterranean Europe such as Turkey ; Egypt, Morocco and Tunisia, and Switzerland, Central and Eastern European countries). The focus of report was the World Tourism Organisation, which, through its activities related to the data collection and reporting, demand and trend forecasting and an array of specialised project, is the leading tourism organisation world-wide. Its importance increased even further once it has obtained a status of specialised UN agency. The report has first given a brief overview of its current activities and special projects and then summarised the most important trends emerging from the WTO’ s surveys and, since 2003, published in the Barometer report. In last four years international tourism has be affected by various terrorist attacks, violence, wars, illness, economic problems etc. Now, more than ever actual and urgent information is essential for any tourism planning and policymaking, so that Barometer is now very useful service of the WTO, available on their web-site.

Internet; World Tourism Organisation; news

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