Iberian-American Tourism Ministers Call for More Investment, Education to Improve Industry

Tourism Ministers from Iberian-American nations held a two-day meeting in Costa Rica and agreed to call on their governments to tackle the need of earmarking more budget money for training and education of tourism employees during the upcoming Iberian American Summit in that Central American nation.

Costa Rican Minister Rodrigo Castro said all countries in the region support the implementation of a harmonic sustainable development project that can generate wealth for all. "But that requires more investment cash," he added.

The ministerial gathering was attended by Francesco Frangialli, secretary-general of the World Tourism Organization (WTO). Mr. Frangialli underscored the importance of tourism as an industry and forecast good perspectives in the near future, including a 5 percent growth worldwide by the end of the ongoing year.

"The travel industry has managed to leave the 9/11 terrorist attacks behind, put the SARS outbreak in Asia to rest, walk past the war in Iraq and overcome the crisis of the world economy," Mr. Frangialli indicated.

Iberian-American countries netted 15 percent of the world tourism last year with nearly 109 million visitors. However, there´s still a huge gap to bridge among nations. Spain, for instance, amassed 49 percent to the total (52.4 million foreign sunbathers), Latin America nabbed 40 percent (44.3 million tourists) and Portugal rode the caboose with a meager 11 percent of the tally.

In 2003, tourism churned out $75 billion for Iberian-American nations, $10 billion more than in 2002. Spain walked off with half of that amount, while Latin America and Portugal grabbed $26 billion and $6.9 billion, respectively.