Madrid - In a healthy year for tourism Africa led the way in 2005 with a ten percent rise in arrivals, the continent attracting 36,7 million visitors, the World Tourist Organisation said on Tuesday.

"Africa was the only region in the world to have performed much better in 2005 than in 2004," the WTO noted in its just-released bulletin of tourist trends.

Nevertheless, Africa remained the world's least visited continent, with the Middle East region, for example, attracting 1,7 million more people.

Kenya turned in the healthiest performance, showing a 26 percent rise as tourists sought out new and exotic climes, unfazed by a year which had more than its share of natural and man-made disasters, the Madrid-based body said as it unveiled annual results for the industry.

Kenya turned in the healthiest performance

Sub-Saharan Africa, although a prime source of emigration to Europe amid economic and political unrest, also proved a tourist magnet with an annualised rise of 13 percent.

South Africa was up a projected 11 percent based on figures to August.

North African destinations likewise perfromed well, Tunisia attracting an eight percent rise in visitors with Morocco's five percent increase in line with the global annual trend of 5,5 percent.

That compared with an annualised rise for Europe of 4,3 percent, where EU membership candidate Turkey led the way on the back of a 20 percent increase in arrivals - sufficient to take it to the fringes of the top ten most popular nations with around 20 million visitors.

The ten percent rise in visitors to Africa as a whole year on year compared with previous annual rises of 4,1 percent in 2002-2003 and 8,4 percent in 2003-2004.

South Africa was up a projected 11 percent based

Of the 36,7 million visitors in 2005, 23,1 million visited sub-Saharan nations with the remaining 13,6 million visiting north African states.

This year, visitors to the continent are forecast to rise 5,5 percent, which would "follow the world trend of more moderate growth in 2006", according to the WTO.

Losing out in 2005 after the devastation of the December 2004 tsunami was Sri Lanka, where the WTO noted a 79 percent drop in charter traffic through to November 2005, although scheduled traffic was up four percent.

The country suffered an overall drop of 0,4 percent according to as yet unofficial figures, with some beach resorts still undergoing renovations.

However, the small drop may be "in part attributed to the large number of Sri Lankan expatriates who visited the country in the aftermath of the tsunami and to the flow of aid workers", the WTO said.