UNWTO Director General calls tourism important 'tool for development'

International tourism is a vital tool for international development, Taleb Rifai, the Secretary-General of the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), said in an exclusive interview with Xinhua.

Speaking ahead of the FITUR World Tourism Exhibition, which will be held in Madrid this week, Rifai explained international tourism was the "most powerful development tool that can be used to better peoples' lives and also the planet."

"If tourism is seen in that light, we'd take it more seriously than we do now. It is not just an economic activity, or a leisure activity. It is an accessory to world human activity, it is a development tool and a very powerful one at that."

Rifai explained that 2014 had been another "very good year" for tourism, despite "economic, health and political challenges. "One in 11 people in the world are employed in tourism, which accounts for 9 percent of the planet' GDP, or 1.4 trillion US dollars," he said.

"We can predict we are crossing the mark of 1.1 billion international travelers in one year. In 2013 we had 1.087 million and there is an average growth of 4.5-5 percent in the first 9 months of 2014," he said.

There have been negative factors in 2014, such as the Ebola outbreak in West Africa, political problems and the fall of the ruble in Russia and the threat of Jihadist extremism caused by Islamic extremists, but Rifai, highlighted that although fear of Ebola had been generalized to all of Africa, rather than just the region where the outbreak as occurring, "Africa has more than doubled its numbers of tourists in the last 10 years," while even 2014 should see: "4-5 percent growth.

He admitted Russia had suffered as a source market as a result of "the economic situation," but said it "continues to be and will continue to be important," while the fear of the Islamic State "will not affect the 'overall picture' of world tourism."

On a different note the fall in oil prices has had "many positive effects," given that "tourism is dependent on transportation and transportation is dependent on energy costs."

However, there is a flipside to that coin given that although travel costs are cheaper as a result of falling oil prices, countries such as Russia and other BRIC nations, which are exporters of oil, see their revenues affected and suffer as source markets.

One source market, which continues to thrive, however, is China: 2013 saw 97 million Chinese travel to foreign countries, spending 129 billion US dollars in the process and Rifai said 2014 should see "significant growth."

"We are expecting over 120 million in numbers and a comparative growth in tourism expenditure," he said, adding the trend is for continued growth in the foreseeable future.

"We have only seen the tip of the iceberg in that direction as an outbound market: the Chinese middle class continues to grow, the economy continues to consolidate itself and that is reflected in more people wanting to travel," he said, adding that countries which receive Chinese visitors are also increasingly "aware of the needs" of Chinese visitors in both terms of "accommodation and visas."

He did, however, make a plea for governments to do all they could to facilitate travel, explaining that although that in general they are "more aware" of the needs for travel and visa facilitation, in general they are doing "too little" too slowly."

"62 percent of the world's population still needs a stamped visa in order to travel...many governments have responded positively, but it is still not enough," concluded Rifai, whose reminded leaders that the benefits of tourism are that it "lifts people out of poverty, leads to improved infrastructures and boosts trade," spreading benefits way beyond those a traveler imagines when they board a plane or step onto a train to begin their holidays. Endit