INNOVATION REPORT 2015


“TRAVELAGENT NUMBERS


RECOVEREDTO 61,000 IN 2014”


The six-year UK GDP trend mirrors


UK employment, with a steady rise since 2009. It took the UK five years to return to pre-recession GDP levels. In analysing travel’s performance,


our researcher Kew Associates has looked at data collected by ONS that it uses to feed into its UK GDP calculations. However, the air transport and


water transport sectors are not covered in this way so we have used the most up-to-date passenger data available instead to indicate the performance of these sectors. Travel agents and tour operators


are, in this analysis, combined under UK Services Turnover and within that agents represent 75% of the combined figure. And to determine hotels’ turnover we’ve used an ONS category called Accommodation Services, of which hotels represent 80%.


CRUNCHINGTHENUMBERS Civil Aviation Authority figures for airport terminal passengers reveal the sector hit a five-year high in 2014 of 238million, surpassing the 2008 pre-recession figure of 235 million for the first time (chart, page 17). Post-recession recovery in this


sector started in 2011 after three successive years of decline. This is borne out by the recent


flurry of announcements of record passenger numbers from the likes of Heathrow, Gatwick and Manchester airports, as well


as from carriers such as Ryanair. Globally, airline body Iata


announced record passenger figures for 2014 of 3.3 billion (up 5.9% year on year, above the 10-year average), although it warned of softening demand in Europe. Travel agency and


£1.698 TRILLION


UKGDP 2014


tour operator revenue grew 8.1% in 2014 to £28.4 billion, the highest level in the six years that our analysis covers. Although this sector bucked the national trend by growing in 2009 as the recession took hold, growth over the six-year period has been patchy following a severe 14% decline in 2010. This retraction was more than matched by growth in 2012 when the two combined sectors saw 15% revenue growth. The hotel sector has seen


more-steady improvement since two successive years of decline in 2009 and 2010 (-6.2% and -4.6% respectively) (chart, page 17). Revenue growth did stall in 2012


(0.2%) but the average growth over the past four years has been 4%. The water passenger sector – ferries


and cruises – has reversed a declining trend from 2008 to 2012, when it slumped to 19.7 million carryings.


TRAVOLUTION’S TAKE


The demographic data on the UK travel industry appears to paint a picture of an industry putting the worst of the recession behind it. Obviously, this is great news when it comes to prospects for its


investment in the sort of new technologies that will ensure it keeps up with consumer demands. The employment figures we look at in this section of the Innovation Report may be seen as a barometer of technology investment as much as an indication of how firms are faring. With increased technology usually comes increased automation, so you


might expect headcount to go down. However, travel is an intensely emotive product to sell and deliver, so it is likely that automation is also being used to free employees to offer that human touch.


BILLION £28.4


TRAVEL AGENTS AND TOUR


OPERATORS REVENUE


PASSENGERS, 2014


M238ILLION AIRPORT


£20.9 MILLION


ACCOMMODATION SERVICES TURNOVER


Official 2014 UK cruise figures are


not yet available from the Cruise Lines International Association, but double-digit increases have not been seen since before the recession. The UK remains Europe’s biggest


cruise market, with a 27.2% share of passenger numbers in 2013 when 1.72million British passengers took an ocean cruise – up by 25,000 over 2012. However, the water transport figures


are dominated by passengers making short sea or ferry crossings.


16 — FEBRUARY 2015 — TRAVOLUTION.CO.UK


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