The United Nations World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO) has revealed the latest survey of international tourism figures, which show a decline of 8 per cent between January and April 2009, compared with the same period in the previous year.

Destinations worldwide recorded a total of 247 million international tourist arrivals for the four months to April 2009, down from 269 million in 2008. As a result of these figures, UNWTO now forecasts that international tourism will decrease by between 4 per cent and 6 per cent in 2009, as the pace of decline is anticipated to ease during the remainder of 2009.

With the exception of Africa, which rose by 3 per cent, all other regions recorded a decrease in arrivals for the first four months of 2009. The highest decline was experienced in the Middle East, at 18 per cent, but complete data wasn't available and the UNWTO expects that arrivals will still be 'well above' 2007 levels.

In Europe, the impact was high at 10 per cent while outbound tourism of the second largest market, the UK, endured the depreciation of the pound sterling. Details: unwto.org