MANILA, April 9 Kyodo

Tourism in developing Asia fell 1.3% last year as a result of the Sept. 11 terror attacks on the United States, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) said Tuesday.

''Although the largest absolute losses in tourism are being borne by the big markets such as the U.S. and Europe, tourism in developing Asia is generally suffering more from the attacks in relative terms,'' said the bank's Asian Development Outlook 2002.

''This is in part because of perceived risk to the traveler, either from proximity to the fighting in Afghanistan or from internal security concerns,'' the annual report said.

The report said the Sept. 11 attacks had immediate and significant global impact on tourism.

The World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC) estimates that the attacks caused a swing in tourism's 2001 contribution to world gross domestic product (GDP) from projected growth of about 3% to a contraction of about 1%.

In addition, the report said, the WTTC projects the attacks will result in an overall contraction of the global industry of about 0.4% this year.

Destinations at a great distance from the traveler's home also tend to be harder hit, the report said.

''WTTC reports that tourism in Southeast Asia, projected prior to the attacks to grow rapidly in 2001, contracted by about 1.8% instead. Thus, the attacks resulted in a loss of more than 6% of tourism contributions to GDP in 2001,'' it said.

''An additional factor was the reduction in visits home by overseas workers who were suffering from reduced job security because of poor general global economic conditions.''

The Asia-Pacific developing member countries (DMCs) experienced a deeper contraction in tourism while tourism growth slowed significantly in East Asia and South Asia.

Still quoting the WTTC, the report said the DMCs with the largest projected job losses in 2001 and 2002 are China, India, Thailand and the Philippines.

China is the fifth most visited tourism destination in the world with 31.2 million visitors in 2000. It has the largest number of jobs provided by tourism in the world, at more than 50 million, followed by India, at more than 23 million jobs.

Tourism is an important industry, and prior to the Sept. 11 attacks a rapidly growing one, both in the world generally and developing Asia specifically, the report said.