Baumgarten: Travel-and-tourism outlook looking up | hotelnewsnow.com

2008 may have ended on a dour note, and challenges still lie ahead, but the travel-and-tourism industry will rebound by 2010 with steady growth that will continue throughout the decade, according to Jean-Claude Baumgarten, president of the World Travel & Tourism Council. “We are not in the car industry … travel and tourism is resilient,” he said during a general session at the Caribbean Hotel & Tourism Investment Conference. The industry, which represents 10 percent of the world gross domestic product, experienced 1.8-percent growth in 2008, according to data compiled by the WTTC. The council projected contraction of 3.6 percent in 2009, followed by an average growth of 4 percent to round out the next 10 years.