RESULTS BY REGION

Europe

In spite of initial fears, the tragic events of 11 March in Madrid seem not to have influenced the pace of growth in Europe and results are overall positive. Spain ended the year to date until May with a 3.8% increase over the same period last year whereas other important destinations also improved their figures over 2003. The strength of the euro continued to determine traffic distribution while the positive signs from the economies of the main generating markets and some rebound from long-haul markets brought the resurgence to the majority of the European destinations.

In Northern Europe , the United Kingdom kept track with the good performance of last year and ends the period until April with an increase of almost 15% as all its major markets performed positively and in particular the markets of North America . Within Western European main destinations Germany shows a 10% increase in arrivals for the first quarter of 2004 and 3% in tourism receipts until April while France‘s overnight stays in hotels and similar establishments during the first five months grew by 1.4% over last year's decrease of 7% in the same period. France confirmed good results from the emerging market of China and a slow return of other long-haul markets, in particular the US and Japan . Countries of Central and Eastern Europe continue with the good results of the last months of 2003. Both major players in the sub-region, Hungary and Poland , reached increases of over 10%, partly benefiting from the extra international exposure created in the framework of their entry in the EU and from favourable exchange rates to the euro. In Southern and East Mediterranean Europe, destinations considerably affected in the first months of 2003 due to the pending conflict in Iraq, such as Cyprus and Turkey, are back on the growth path with increases of 11% (January-May) and 50% (January-April) respectively. As for major destinations, Spain managed to maintain the growth trend as already mentioned, while Italy with data available limited to the first two months seems to have rebounded strongly (+18%). Portugal on the other hand, though with a positive growth in receipts (+6%) saw overnight stays decrease by 4%.