Asian tourism will recover from SARS by year-end

Asia’s tourism industry is still suffering the aftershocks of the SARS crisis, but business is starting to pick up and should recover by the end of the year, the head of the World Tourism Organisation said on Sunday.

‘‘The last quarter of this year, the situation will be back to normal,’’ the group’s secretary-general, Francesco Frangialli, said. SARS has now been brought under control and the industry is working hard to recover. Airlines are rebuilding their flight schedules and trying to lure back customers with discounts.