dossier sur le tourisme et le développement durable

6
Tourist flows
Syria has lately become an important destination for Arabian tourists due to the diversity of its
natural assets (beaches, deserts, rivers and especially its mountains that offer holidays in a cool
climate), to the wealth of its cultural heritage, to a marketing policy that is directed to the Arabian
nations, to a moderate cost for holidays and to easy access by car from the Middle East. This
demand has taken several forms:
• tourism in a cool climate for the visitors from the Gulf countries, with long stays in summer;
• weekend stays mainly by visitors from Lebanon and Jordan;
• cultural tourism for visits to the country’s main historical monuments;
• business trips sometimes combined with leisure tourism.
Source: TEC, with contributions from Ozaina Al-Jundi (Syria), Jean Medhi Chapoutot (Tunisia), Adel Rady (Egypt)
The proportion of these tourist flows depends on the country. A wide range of situations exists,
ranging from Greece that almost exclusively attracts European visitors and Syria that depends
on the Middle East. Even if at Mediterannean level Europe remains the main reservoir of
tourists, with more than 84% of the total number of visitors, the national situations are more
varied (Figure 1).
100%
80%
60%
40%
20%
0%
Greece
Malta
Cyprus
France
Figure 1: Origin of international tourists in 1999
Mediterranean
Monaco
Italy
Tunisia
Egypt
Turkey
Israel
Lebanon
Other
Africa
Middle East
East. Asia-Pacific
America
Central and oriental
Europe
Europe (except central
and oriental)
Source: WTO / OMT, Plan Bleu 2002
The total for the Mediterranean only concerns the countries for which all the data relating to the origin of the tourists
was submitted, i.e. the eleven countries represented here.
1.3. Strong sensitivity to crises but resilience over the long term
Strong sensitivity to crises
The vulnerability of tourism is particularly visible when there is a drop in international visitors
due to economic, political, security or environmental crises.
Tourism is highly affected by the evolution of the economic situation of the emitting countries.
Expenditure on tourism is the first to be cut in times of economic difficulties. Long-term studies
have shown that even if holidays are not given up, spending is reduced. On the contrary, in
periods of economic growth, tourism develops more rapidly than other activities.
Tourism is also susceptible to environmental crises and natural catastrophes. In France, the oil
spill in 2000 due to the sinking of the tanker Erika affected an area of 400 km of the Atlantic
coast that represented between 25 and 30% of the coastline’s accommodation capacity. There
was a drop of 27% in the rental of furnished property, of 21% on campsites and 9% in hotels.
The economic damage for tourism was estimated at between 300 and 450 million euros. In Italy,