Funny Picture

Flight Centre brings together airlines, hotels, cruise lines and tour companies in a mid-winter Travel Expo, making it hard to walk even twenty feet without booking a vacation somewhere. The February 2nd show at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre was free, which is what I like. I hate when a show is there to sell you a product and you have to pay to get in - like the auto show, where all the car manufacturers crowd into a building then make you wait in lines and pay for the chance to buy a car, those guys should be paying us!
People took advantage of the deals and the seminars to get maximum benefit from the travel event. A contestant climbs into a money cyclone to pick up discount dollars in the above photo.


The UN World Tourism Organization UNWTO says that international tourism will continue with robust growth in 2013 so it was not surprising that so many people came down to the convention centre. 2012's over 1 billion tourist arrivals is expected to grow 3-4% with 2012 top growth spots being South-East Asia and North Africa while Asia and the Pacific are the 2013 top growth prospects. Overall Europe remains the top region for visitors with over 535 million arrivals in 2012.

“2012 saw continued economic volatility around the globe, particularly in the Eurozone. Yet international tourism managed to stay on course” said UNWTO Secretary-General, Taleb Rifai. “The sector has shown its capacity to adjust to the changing market conditions and, although at a slightly more modest rate, is expected to continue expanding in 2013. Tourism is thus one of the pillars that should be supported by governments around the world as part of the solution to stimulating economic growth,” he added.

"Among the top ten tourist destinations, receipts were up significantly in Hong Kong (China) (+16%), the USA (+10%), the UK (+6%) and Germany (+5%). At the same time, a significant number of destinations around the world saw receipts from international tourism increase by 15% or more – Japan (+37%), India and South Africa (both +22%), Sweden and the Republic of Korea (both +19%), Thailand (+18%) and Poland (+16%)."