Is Success Spoiling World Tourism?

Booming tourism, especially to Europe this year, has brought a warning from the head of the World Tourism Organization. Secretary General Francesco Frangialli complained that Europe’s best-known monuments are groaning at the seams.

And things are going to get worse. WTO forecasts show that by 2020, 1.56 billion tourists a year will be roaming the world--more than double this year’s forecast of 668 million. Europe can just about cope with its 400 million tourists a year now, but not if they all come at the same time and want to go to the same places, Frangialli added.

“We get groups of Japanese girls coming to Europe for a week, and they all want to see the Mona Lisa and the Hermes shop in Paris and then go the Sistine Chapel and buy a bag at Gucci in Rome,” he said. “We have to work on diversifying tourist flows to . . . lower the pressure on some sites and monuments.”

Much of future tourist development will occur in Asia, the WTO forecasts: By 2020 China will have overtaken France, the U.S. and Spain as the top tourist destination.