Morocco and Tunisia registered a six per cent increase in the tourism sector in the Mediterranean region, but Turkey reported a seven per cent drop, and Malta and Israel went down four per cent.

France was the world s first tourism destination in 2006 after receiving nearly 80 million visitors, the World Tourism Organisation said last week.

According to the report, Spain comes in second place with 58.4 million of tourist arrivals, while Europe welcomed 457 million tourists.

The US and China followed those European nations, however, many experts agree that the Asian country is expected to become the main competitor of the French from 2007 to 2010.

The UNWTO revealed that 842 million tourists travelled all over the world in 2006, 4.5 per cent more than in 2005.