Global tourism hit a new record in 2006 with 842 million arrivals, up by 4.5 percent on a year earlier, with China as a key emerging market in the sector, the Madrid-based World Tourism Organization (WTO) said on Monday.

 

France and Spain are the most visited nations and the most outstanding performance was recorded in China, which tied with the United States for the third most toured nation, WTO General Secretary Francesco Frangialli told reporters.

 

 

If China maintains its current growth rate of tourist arrivals, it would surpass Spain and France in 2010 and 2020, respectively, Frangialli predicted.

 

The countries that provide the most tourists are the United States, Germany and Japan, but China and India have generated "fairly large tourist flows" in recent years, he said.

 

Africa registered the highest growth rate of 8.9 percent in 2006, followed by the Asia Pacific region with 7.6 percent. Europe and the Middle East both saw an increase of 4 percent and the Americas posted the weakest growth rate of 2 percent.

 

Spain attracted 58.5 million tourists, 4.5 percent higher than a year earlier.

 

The WTO estimated that global tourism will grow by 4 percent this year and by an average of 4.1 percent each year through 2020.

 

(Xinhua News Agency January 31, 2007)