The signs of a travel uptick are tentative but promising. Lufthansa registered a slight rise in passengers in May from the year before. Thomas Cook, Europe’s second-largest tourism company, based in the Frankfurt suburb of Oberursel, says bookings are up 8% since major fighting ended in Iraq. And Paris-based Club Med eked out a first-half operating profit of $14 million, vs. a $5 million loss the previous year.



Tourists are returning to Europe, though not in the droves of years past. Germany, Italy, Spain, and Britain all greeted more visitors in the first four months of 2003, says the World Tourism Organization, which expects the trend to accelerate. France is seeing fewer foreign tourists, but the Transport Ministry is forecasting a 2% increase for the full year. France’s opposition to the Iraq war has kept some Americans away, says François Delahaye, director of Paris’ luxury hotel Plaza Athénée. To lure them back, he is planning a July publicity tour in New York to “tell Americans that we love them.”
More here.