World tourism has weathered terrorism, war, and disease in the past two years. But modest growth is under way despite all that, and it's China — both as an increasingly popular destination and as a source of outbound tourists — that is providing the engine.

Gathering in Beijing for a meeting of the World Tourism Organization, industry leaders catalogued their woes — among them the Iraq war and the outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome that killed hundreds of people — but said Sunday that the worst seemed to be over.

"The difficulties we are facing have stopped the growth, but now it's starting again. Here in China, it's booming," Francesco Frangialli, secretary-general of the 141-nation organization, said at a news conference.

International tourist numbers hit a record 702.6 million last year, a rise of 2.7 percent over 2001, the year of the Sept. 11 attacks. France remains the most popular destination, receiving more than 77 million visitors, followed by Spain, the United States and Italy.

China, however, marked 11 percent growth over that period, attracting 36.8 million international visitors to place fifth among leading tourism nations. By 2020, it will beat the French, with predictions of 130 million visitors per year, Frangialli said.

To achieve the top spot China would have to continue its rapid growth in the numbers of inbound tourists. Frangialli did not say why the organization believed the country could continue to attract those numbers.

"Even if there is some delay in confirmation of this trend, the numbers are impressive," he said.

One reason China may be so popular is pent-up demand. China only opened up to tourists in the 1980s. Trying to make up for lost time, the country has opened up more sites each year, such as newly restored ancient temples and sections of the Great Wall.

It has also augmented its tour packages with new pitches for the more adventurous to trek in the Himalayas or to camp on the Mongolian steppe.

The numbers are good news to an industry eager to show that several major terrorist blows to tourist spots — among them the bombing in Bali a year ago — don't mean the entire world is unsafe for travel. Pacific Rim nations now meeting at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum in Thailand have made tourism — and its effect on the regional economy — a major issue of discussion.

China's development comes despite the hard blow dealt by the SARS epidemic, which all but halted travel during the worst months of May and June and prompted millions of international and domestic travelers to stay home and consider China a no-go zone.

Although domestic travel soon resumed inside China, large numbers of international visitors only began returning in August.

The World Tourism Organization's Beijing assembly itself almost fell victim to the SARS outbreak. As late as July, organizers were debating whether to proceed with China as their venue at a time when the city was still recovering, Frangialli said.

But he said China's recovery had gone smoothly and Asia was again becoming a dynamic region for the international travel industry, which racked up revenues of $473 billion last year, making it larger than the international trade in agriculture.

"We are demonstrating that after the SARS outbreak, destinations in the region have continued where they left off and that Asia is once again leading industry growth," said Frangialli, whose Madrid-headquartered group is in the process of becoming a specialized United Nations organization.

China has said repeatedly that tourists are safe and that it is has made comprehensive preparations for containing any new outbreak.

"We don't know if SARS is going to or will ever reemerge, but we have to assume the possibility that that will take place," said U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson, visiting Beijing on Sunday.

With growing incomes, Chinese are also becoming a major force as outbound travelers. Their numbers are expected to grow to 30 million by the end of the decade, and 100 million in 2020, Frangialli said.

"China is becoming more and more a huge generating market for the rest of the world, first of all for its neighbors, but also more and more for the rest of the world," Frangialli said.

Chinese are currently allowed by their government to visit just 28 countries as self-paying tourists, a policy rooted in politics and government worries about the loss of hard currency.

But with Chinese tourists being recognized as a major source of income, more than 20 countries are now lobbying Beijing to put them on the list of approved destinations, said Zhang Xiqin, deputy director of the China National Tourism Administration.

"The scope and potential for Chinese tourism is just enormous," Zhang said.

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