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Tourism 'essential to many countries' economies'

The Association of British Travel Agents (Abta) has underlined the importance of the tourism industry, saying that many countries' economies would collapse without it.

Commenting on the impact of travel and the growing popularity of holiday locations such as Faro and Malaga, Sean Tipton of Abta said that it was important for the effects of the industry to be minimised.

"Travel is the same as any other activity - it will have an environmental impact and it is up to us to minimise that impact," he said.

However, Mr Tipton also stressed that a mass move away from the tourism industry would have as many drawbacks as it would advantages.

"Holidays do cause damage but if we all stop going on foreign holidays tomorrow you would be talking about a very large percentage of very poor countries' economies collapsing overnight," he explained.

According to research carried out by TNS Online Omnibus last year, 65 per cent of people would not change their travel plans in order to reduce the environmental impact of their holiday.

Article ID: 687, Posted: Fri, 26 Sep 2008 18:33:39 GMT