TOURISMOS is an international, multi-disciplinary, refereed (peer ...

James Leigh
• In 2008, international tourist arrivals barely reached 924 million,
up only 16 million over 2007, representing a disappointing
annual declined growth of only 2%.
• Tourism demand slowed significantly through the year under the
influence of an extremely volatile world economy (financial
crisis, commodity and oil price rises, and sharp exchange rate
fluctuations), undermining both consumer and business
confidence and resulting in the current global economic
recession.
• The second half of 2008 saw growth come to a standstill with the
number of international arrivals declining – a trend which is
expected to continue in 2009.
More specific arrival details, in the graph below, show that the
uneasy trend in early 2008 led to significant declines (actually drastic
collapses) – to negative growth rate changes, declining to over minus 2%,
in the last five months of 2008 (UNWTO World Tourism Barometer,
2009, p. 6).
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Figure 3 International Tourism Arrivals