MADRID (AFP) ― The Asia-Pacific region, led by China, will be the main force driving world tourism in the next 10 years, a consultancy survey forecast on Wednesday.

The tourism industry as a whole will grow faster than overall economic activity, the survey estimated.

“The major trend is the continued growth in Asia, that is really driving the global travel industry forward,” economist Andrew Tessler at Oxford Economics which published the survey, told AFP.

“Overall, globally, the industry is growing faster than gross domestic product, at least in the forecast years up to 2023,” he said.

The survey was carried out for the biggest travel booking company, Madrid-based Amadeus, and Tessler said that two big factors in the sector were the rise of low-cost service providers and increasing use of mobile phones to organize and book travel arrangements.

The study estimated that the number of tourists would rise by 5.4 percent a year in the next 10 years. This would be higher than the expected rate of economic growth, put at 3.4 percent.