Tourism is continuing to grow globally, although at a slower pace, amid the global economic slowdown, media reports said on Wednesday.

Francesco Frangialli, Secretary General of the UN World Tourism Organization (The UNWTO), attributed the growth to people's modern- day lifestyle, Philippine newspaper Businessworld reported.

"The access to holidays and leisure of the middle classes and families of young entrepreneurs from the emerging countries of Asia and the high propensity to travel of the retired baby boomers of Europe and North America, are the two powerful engines that are today impelling world tourism," Frangialli said in Manila in front of travel agents from all over the world.

"With regular inputs from these two sources, increases in arrivals of some 4 percent a year should become the norm," he added.

"In the developed world, consumers consider going on a holiday a vital part of their lives. They want to preserve this although they might be looking for cheaper airfares or accommodation. They might even postpone it, but when there's a window, they'll do it," said the Secretary General.

International tourist arrivals grew by an average of 7 percent a year in the last four years. Last year, arrivals increased by 6. 6 percent to 903 million and international tourism receipts grew 5. 6 percent to US$856 billion, according to the report.

As of August this year, arrivals were up by 3.8 percent, Frangialli said.

This is lesser than the growth last year, "but still the current figure is not bad. Growth should not be negative this year, " said the Secretary General.

The UNWTO, in its World Tourism Barometer, said international tourism was expected to grow by 3 to 4 percent this year.

"On the whole, while consumer confidence indices show an increasing degree of uncertainty, international tourism has proven to be resilient in similar circumstances in the past and able to cope with various types of shocks including security threats, geopolitical tensions or natural and man-made crises," according to the World Tourism Barometer.

Globally, France remained the top tourist destination last year, followed by Spain and the United States. But Frangialli said Asian countries led by China could move faster this year. Asia was the second most-visited region in 2004 and accounted for 27 percent of global tourism in terms of arrivals and receipts.

He said that intra-Asian travel, especially in the eastern part of the continent, had remained strong and that the region was not affected as much as the West by the global financial crisis.

Last year, 40 million Chinese, 70 million Japanese, and 6 million Koreans traveled across Asia, which is "a major phenomenon, " he said.

China, which alternates with Italy as the fourth and fifth top tourist destination globally, has moved up to the fifth place in terms of tourism spending as of last year. The United States, Spain, France and Germany held the top four spots.

(Xinhua News Agency October 22, 2008)