The global tourism forecast for 2009 was revised downwards by UN World Tourism, as the economic condition worsened and the impact of the H1N1 flu pandemic persisted.

The Madrid body forecast, in its June edition, "World Tourism Barometer", the international tourism to go down between four and six per cent this year, while in January, its predictions were down between zero and two per cent.

Where as the International Monetary Fund forecast a growth of over 2.0 per cent in the world economy, just when the UN gave the tourism forecast in January.

But recently, the IMF has given a forecast of 1.3 contractions in the global economy.

It was stated by the UN that there was a decline in the global tourism by 8 percent in the first four months of 2009, as compared to the previous year, to 247 million international tourism arrivals.

There was a ten per cent decline of tourism in Europe between January and April, where as in Asia and in the Pacific region the decline was six per cent.

However, Africa registered an increase of three percent, where as the South America registered an increase of 0.2 per cent.

The UN stated, 'The positive results in Africa reflect the strength of North African destinations around the Mediterranean and the recovery of Kenya as one of leading Sub- Saharan destinations.'

In 2008, the international tourism arrivals rose 1.9 per cent in to 922 million 2008 as compared to 2007. The same year, France was the world's top tourism destination with 79 million arrivals, followed by the United States.