Europe’s travel market Cause for optimism and caution
T
ravel is a global market, the web is borderless, mobile technology connects billions and cloud infrastructure, data and machine
learning create burgeoning possibilities. Inevitably the young attune first to what is new, and emerging markets with younger populations lead the way in adopting the latest technology. Think of China. Yet international travel is overwhelmingly
regional. The most-mature travel markets remain not only among the biggest and highest spending but continue to grow. Older adults, not the young, dominate the market and trends which might be thought dying, such as package holidays and all-inclusive resorts, show surprising growth. Demand for all-inclusive holidays has boomed since 2008-09 and appears not yet to have peaked – so much so that major hospitality groups are moving into the sector. Marriott International announced an $800 million investment in all-inclusive resorts and the launch of a dedicated platform in August 2019. This report examines some of these
trends. It looks at Europe because that is where almost nine out of 10 Europeans who travel internationally each year travel. Europe is the source of almost half the
world’s international travellers and the destination of more than half. Five of the world’s top-10 destinations by visitor numbers are in Europe and six of the top-10 by receipts.
FIGURE 2: TRAVEL & TOURISM SOURCE MARKETS BY REGION
Share of global market 3% 17%
Europe Asia Pacific Americas Middle East Africa
Other/unspecified Source: UNWTO, 2017 data 48% 25%
Europe Asia Pacific Americas Africa
Middle East Source: UNWTO 3%4% 15.5%
EUROPE is the source of almost half the world’s international travellers
(Figure 2) and attracts just over half the international arrivals (Figure 3)
Three of the world’s top-five source
markets are European – Germany, the UK and France – and travel spending per capita in these dwarfs that of the US and China, the remaining two of the top five. Germany and the UK account for almost half the EU outbound market – though Britain’s exit from the EU will change that. The smallest of Europe’s big-three outbound markets, France, is the world’s third-biggest destination and a fourth (Spain) is the number two. A fifth, Italy, has most appeal in the biggest source markets (the US and China). What the UK lacks as a destination – it’s
the world number-five for international tourism receipts – it makes up for as an aviation hub. Britain is the world’s number one for international passengers and Europe’s number one for air traffic – almost a quarter bigger than nearest rival Germany.
Travel e-commerce It is frequently assumed that e-commerce and mobile search now dominate travel. The sector is certainly among the most digitised of ‘traditional’ retail and service sectors. Pan-EU figures compiled by EU data agency
Eurostat show e-commerce accommodation bookings running at three times the rate of retail e-commerce overall in 2018. Yet two- thirds of accommodation bookings in Europe were not made online last year. The UK rate of online accommodation bookings was 44%, higher than the
INTERNATIONAL ARRIVALS BY REGION, 2018 Share of global market
FIGURE 3: Arrivals by sub-region 5% 4%
INTERNATIONAL ARRIVALS, 2018
1.4bn 51% 24.5%
Europe NE Asia SE Asia South Asia Oceania
North America & Caribbean
Central & South America North Africa Sub-Sahara Africa Middle East
Source: UNWTO 2%
2% 1%
3.5% 12% 9.5% 12% S Europe/
Mediterranean = 21%
3%4% 51%
Travel Weekly Europe Report 2019 | 7
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