Despite the increasing economic turbulence in Europe due to
Euro Crisis, European tourism industry figures are rising up. The ITB World
Travel Trends Report which is compiled by IPK International and commissioned by
ITB Berlin reports that based on year-on-year comparison, trips out of Europe
have increased by four per cent. Inspite of the economic uncertainty in European
countries, travel spending has not been affected and has infact risen by two
per cent.
The forecast for next year is also positive. Overall, IPK's ‘European Travel Confidence
Index' lies at 103 points for 2012, which indicates a 2-3% growth for next
year. This would represent solid growth and would mean a new all-time high
number of trips, breaking the previous record year of 2008.
Particularly, The Swiss were noted as keen travelers. The
number of trips they took grew by nine per cent. They were followed by Sweden
(seven per cent) and Belgium (six per cent) respectively. Germans were more
restrained. In 2011 the number of trips they took rose by only one per cent.
Among European tourists, the major cities were popular yet again.
The most popular trips were City breaks, closely followed by round trips and
beach holidays. Bookings by smartphones have made no significant impact in
Europe till now. Only 3% of European travelers said they used mobile devices to
make their travel reservations while the rest 97% use internet via a PC or
laptop.
The ITB World Travel Trends Report will present the details
of European travel trends in early December at www.itb-berlin.com. The report
is based on the assessments of 50 tourism experts from 30 countries.
No comments:
Post a Comment