“The need to travel is defying economic difficulties,” the Madrid-based UN World Tourism Organisation secretary general Taleb Rifai told AFP.

The number of people making tourist trips in 2012 is set to record a rise of three per cent compared to 2011 in recession-bound Europe, seven per cent in Asia and four per cent worldwide, he said.

“When you have one billion international travellers, it’s one out of six people of the world that cross borders,” he said.

“If you add to that about five billion more travellers within their national boundaries... there is almost one trip per year for every citizen of this world that is done under the definition of being a tourist.”