MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Global operators anticipate “tourism explosion” from China, India and Brazil

David Scowsill, CEO of the World Travel and Tourism Council

China, India and Brazil are poised to fuel an explosion in international tourism in the coming years helping to create jobs in countries ready for it, and trouble for those that lag, industry leaders say.

With an estimated two billion new middle class consumers expected to come into the markets from the Asian giants over the next two decades, the travel industry sees a potential gold rush ahead.

“The growth of China outbound travel is moving at a huge pace -- it is about 20% increase every year. And the number of outbound Chinese travellers hit 58 million last year,” said David Scowsill, CEO of the World Travel and Tourism Council, an industry promotion group.

”And if you look ahead, (with about) 1.6 billion coming out of China and India, they are a huge amount of people coming in with money to burn,“ he told reporters.

The impact of that coming wave is a top topic at a three-day global travel and tourism summit that opened in Las Vegas, drawing CEO from many of the world's largest travel companies and top tourism officials.

The United States has sent Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood and Valerie Jarrett, a top advisor to President Barack Obama. Mexico's President Fernando Calderon is the guest of honour.

Barriers to travel, technological innovation and change, body blows to tourism in quake-struck Japan and the turbulent Middle East also are on the agenda here. But organizers say they want to get US government officials and industry leaders thinking about what the arrival of the Chinese, Brazilians, Indians and others from newly affluent countries will mean for their national economies and the international travel business.

”We'll ask the attendees whether they are ready to absorb that level of growth,“ said Scowsill. ”Are governments ready with infrastructure build? Are private investors ready to put the investment in, and generally speaking are we ready to absorb that level of growth?“

Roger Dow, of the US Travel Association, calls the conflict between the projected surge in demand and lagging infrastructure ”a real chicken and egg.“

”As we build this travel, which will happen, we'll also have to take a real hard look at our infrastructure, our next generation systems for airports, and adding airport capacity,“ he said.

Countries that haven't caught up in time are likely to be cursed with fun-killing bottlenecks and overcrowding as millions of new tourists pour through the global travel system.

Ironically, said Scowsill, it is ”the developed market leaders that don't fully understand the impact of tourism. They kind of take it for granted in a way that we do not see in some of the developing world.”