European tourism - growth, but no grounds for complacency

LONG-HAUL travel to #Europe enjoyed an encouraging summer this year, and the upward trend in arrivals is expected to continue, according to a study by ForwardKeys, which monitors future travel patterns by analysing 14 million reservation transactions daily.

Total international long-haul arrivals from January to September were up 5.1% on the previous year, and forward bookings are up 4.8% for the rest of the year.

Sebastien Cron, global sales director at ForwardKeys, said: ‘While it’s widely recognized that Europe is losing its competitiveness, it’s good to see from our data that long-haul travel to Europe has been growing well recently, pushed up by a strong summer season, particularly in July.’

But the European Tourism Association’s CEO Tom Jenkins urged the industry not to be lulled into a false state of security over figures showing growth. ‘Travel and #tourism in other parts of the world is increasing faster than in Europe. Although the statistics show we are continuing to grow at an average annual growth rate of 3.6% since 2007, the rest of world is growing at a rate of 5.7% over the same period.’

Within Europe, the picture is mixed. Germany and the Netherlands have been the stand-out performers since 2007, displaying total tourism growth of 37% and 33% respectively for the period, a 4.6% and 4.2% annual average, whereas the UK and France have grown just 13% and 10% for the period, an average of just 1.7% and 1.4% per annum.

Top European destinations for arrivals, between January and September, were London, Paris, Istanbul, and Rome, though growth in London and Paris was anaemic, with London 0.3% down and Paris just 1.6% up. For the rest of year, Barcelona and Milan, top the list for the fastest growing destinations, are up 20.3% and 25.6% respectively, owing to the Milan Expo and improved connectivity to Barcelona, particularly via Dubai.

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