Air travel set to drop by 10% this year

Air travel is set to drop by 10% in 2002, says the World Travel and Tourism Council vice-president. Graham Wason described the crisis facing the industry as more serious than that which followed the Gulf War. He added that the fall in demand may lead to about 8.8 million jobs losses worldwide in the tourism industry. The US will lose 1.1 million jobs because of the drop in air travel and the EU will see a loss of 1.2 million jobs. Worldwide air travel has already seen a drop of 2025% in business since the US terror attacks, and the US a 35% drop. He noted though that some tourism destinations “are even benefiting from September 11.”