Preliminary Results for International Tourism in 2002; Air Transport after 11 September

Preliminary results for 2002, as presented by the World Tourism Organization (WTO), show a reasonable improvement in tourism demand with international tourism worldwide increasing by an estimated 3%. Asia and the Pacific and the Middle East led growth, Africa grew above the world average and Europe below, while the Americas slightly decreased. In the second part of this issue's Databank, the author takes a closer look at the evolution of air transport after 11 September 2001, drawing on data from ICAO and various regional airline associations. The monthly traffic data reported by ATA, AEA and AAPA, the regional associations for, respectively, the major North American, European and Asian airlines, constitute a valuable source of timely information on the short-term evolution of this part of the tourism flow over the last few years.