What Lies Ahead for the Tourists of the Next Century

The tourist of the future could find that his Paris hotel serves fish curry for breakfast and that he cannot wander into the Louvre or climb the Eiffel Tower at will.

He will probably have to book months ahead to see museums and monuments in the world’s major cities and pay a substantial premium if he wants to go in peak season, said Antonio Savignac, secretary general of the Madrid-based World Tourism Organization.

The organization forecasts that the number of tourists on the move worldwide will double by 2010.

“The numbers are mind-boggling,” Savignac said. “We’re going to run into problems that we’ve never run into before.”

“We’re looking at almost a billion international arrivals by the year 2010, but that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Domestic tourism, people traveling within their own country, could be 10 times that.”

One of the biggest changes in the Americas and Europe will be a huge influx of Asian travelers.

Around 10 million to 15 million Chinese and between 80 million and 85 million Indians can now afford to travel abroad, he said. Although most still stay in their own region, more and more will venture farther.

Hotels and restaurants will have to cater to new eating habits and religious restrictions. Some top international hotels already find they have to prepare half a dozen types of food to feed their staff alone, Savignac said.

“They can no longer get away with a simple, homogenized continental menu.”

The other major change facing the travel industry is that tourist attractions will simply reach the bursting point and start to place tight restrictions on tourists’ access.