... need to be reinforced to maintain the number of visitors. The development of rural tourism is important too and it is reflected by the reappearance of fine communities not usually considered as tourist zones, such as Castilla y León, Asturias and Cantabria. a-Regional trends Western Europe is the world's largest regional tourist destination, accounting for some 46.7% of all arrivals in 2001. It was affected to a lesser degree than North America by the events of September 11th, as the level of intra-European tourism was maintained as consumers stayed closer to home. The Asia-Pacific region has consistently gained importance within the world tourism picture with a growth of 33.7%. Africa and the Middle East had been performing very strongly before 2001, which made this the second highest growth region. North America was the most severely affected region following the events of September 11th and the accompanying economic downturn. Traffic to the US ...

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