With the rattling of the US and UK economies in recent weeks, many countries that count on tourism dollars from those areas are beginning a slow panic. Without continuous support from tourism, many will fall into economic slowdowns.
Many of these countries, including countries like Malta, Belize, Costa Rica and Cyprus have large stakes in the tourism industry that extend much farther than the service industries there. They also continue to be property investment havens for those property buyers looking to purchase buy to let properties and second home properties.
The World Trade Organisation released recent numbers of top tourism destinations in the world. France topped the list with some 79.1 million foreign travellers coming in through 2007. That is a rise of more than one million visitors over 2006.
Additional French tourists to France include Spain, the Netherlands, Switzerland and UK residents. Spain was the second most toured country, followed by the United States. Mexico made the top ten as well.
Countries are paying more attention than ever to these numbers in hopes of protecting economies. In Malta, for example, the Labour government in place there is looking closely at the current situation in tourism there. 4 to 6% is the goal to increase the country's economy and tourism is to be the main tool used to make that happen.
