Booming world tourism heads to Bali with conundrum

The world's booming tourism industry is both a contributor to and a victim of climate change but it must not be penalised as part of any solution, the head of the World Tourism Organisation said on Monday.

Francesco Frangialli, secretary general of the United Nations body, said tourism was an economic lifeline for many nations and simplistic moves to curb it could spell doom for millions of people.

"Tourism helps poverty alleviation, which is one of the millennium development goals, so tourism must be part of the solution," he told reporters on the eve of a meeting of tourism ministers in London.

It is a message he will take to a meeting of U.N. environment ministers on the Indonesian island of Bali next month to discuss a possible successor to the Kyoto Protocol on cutting climate-warming carbon emissions, which expires in 2012.

"People see tourism as a luxury, a leisure pursuit. They don't see it as a vital economic activity. Our goal is to make sure they see this side of it as well," Frangialli said.