A UNITED Nations study out this week has warned that Bermuda will be one of the tourist destinations most affected by the worsening financial crisis, thanks to its popularity with visitors from recession-stricken countries.

The United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) published an overview of the region's economies in late December. One of the key findings of this report, called the 'Preliminary Overview of the Economies of Latin America and the Caribbean 2008': approximately 75 per cent of tourists to the "English-speaking Caribbean" come from developed economies in the throes of recession.

As a result, the United Nations World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO) predicts that tourism to the region will expand "somewhere between zero and two per cent in 2009", down from two to three per cent in 2008 and 6.6 per cent in 2007.

The ECLAC report mentioned Bermuda as one of four islands experiencing a major dip in tourist arrivals during a difficult summer, as the global recession took hold. Between June and August 2008, tourism in the region came to a "standstill", due to "the lower number of visitors to the Bahamas, Barbados, Bermuda and Puerto Rico – four destinations visited mainly by United States and European travelers", according to the study.

ECLAC described these three summer months as a time of "strong deceleration" for Caribbean area tourism, due to "increasing deterioration of real income and consumer expectations, the volatility of exchange rates, and restraints on consumer loans due to the financial crisis".