06.11.18 News
Bookings warning amid Brexit fears
Edward Robertson
Confusion over Brexit and concerns about a “no deal” scenario look set to hit the travel industry in the new year. That was the warning from ForwardKeys’ vice-president insight Olivier Ponti yesterday. Speaking during a presentation at WTM London, Ponti said recent data suggested the UK’s decision to leave the EU had had little impact on the market, with forward bookings for summer 2019 to EU destinations up 5.7% compared with 2017, the same figure as this time last year. Looking beyond the EU, Brits have even more of an appetite for travel, with bookings up by 28.5% for the same period, considerably more than the 4.5% figure recorded at the same time in 2017, he said. However, with the first quarter of the year typically accounting for 32% of all UK summer holiday bookings, Ponti said if the government failed
MARKETING PRIZE
Exhibitors win £5,000 in ‘ideas’ competition
Madeleine Barber
Water-to-Go (AF195), Borneo Holidays & Vehicles Rental (AS700) and InSky Solutions (TT652) have each been gifted £5,000 to spend on marketing at WTM London thanks to an Ideas Arrive Here competition run
by Reed Exhibitions, the organisers of the travel trade show. Each exhibitor was tasked with creating a 30-second video clip outlining the biggest and best business ideas, which they’re planning to share at the show in order to win the prize.
to secure a Brexit deal, this could negatively impact the key period. He added: “If there is still ‘no deal’ and no clarity concerning Brexit in this part of January, February and March, and consumers start panicking, we’ll probably see massive shifts in booking behaviours. January 2019 and Q1 will be key.”
Elsewhere, Ponti noted that while the western Mediterranean remained key for holidaying Brits, the eastern Mediterranean and North Africa had also seen strong growth as security fears dissipate.
He said during the period of January to September 2018, the number of British arrivals to Turkey grew by 57.5% year-on-year, Egypt by 42.3% and Tunisia by 461.9%. This compares favourably with Italy at 2.2% in the same period while Spain and Portugal both saw visitor numbers fall by 1.8% and 0.7% respectively.
Ponti said: “These destinations [Turkey, Egypt and Tunisia] have experienced in the past very strong decreases in visitor numbers through security concerns and terror attacks. “Even though they are growing again, they have still not recovered to the levels they were at before the terror attacks.”
Of the popular EU destinations, Greece performed best with an increase in UK visitor numbers of 11.2%.
Ponti also highlighted just how popular travelling remains with the British market, with the UK accounting for a 6.8% share of all international flight seats currently, from a population of 66.6 million. This compares favourably with the USA, which has the exact same share of seats, but from a population of 325.8 million.
Meanwhile, the Chinese account for 4.1% of global seats with a population of 1.415 billion.
Trpimir Kvesic, of InSky Solutions, said: “Our business solution, TourismInSky, is designed to play the biggest role in our business success and in the satisfaction of customers. We’re at WTM London to make business connections stronger and to work together on further steps of digital transformation and globalisation.”
Faye Robert, Borneo Holidays & Vehicles Rental, added: “This is our first time exhibiting at WTM London and we are thrilled. We are looking forward to meeting people, building networks and gaining knowledge.” Dave Shanks – founder of Water to Go, which produces filtered water bottles – explained their idea was integral to travellers wanting to holiday sustainably.
(l-r) Faye Robert of Borneo Holidays & Vehicles Rental, InSky Solutions, Dave Shanks of Water-to-Go
He said: “Water-to-Go is a simple, environmentally friendly way for you to travel safely, sustainably and responsibly. We deliver pure water from any non- salt water source using nano technology filters.”
Abra Dunsby
Costa Rica (LA200) is aiming to grow its tourism by 6% per year globally, its tourism minister has revealed. Maria Amalia Revelo Raventos
told TTG@WTM she hoped to boost visitor numbers by increasing operations in terms of flights and widening the choice of hotels. Raventos said tourism numbers from Europe were up by 6.1% year-on-year in 2018, with 339,446 visitors from January to August this year.
The USA (Costa Rica’s number one market in terms of arrivals), grew to 1,160,000, up by 5.1% year-on-year. Canada, the country’s second largest tourist market, also grew by 5.1% in 2018, with 154,464 visitors in the same period. Raventos said in particular she saw growth in the European market as “a great opportunity”, adding that new flight capacity in recent years from the likes of British Airways, Lufthansa and KLM had allowed Costa Rica “to have a bigger market share in a high-end market”. She added European visitors tended to be more adventurous, visiting numerous locations within the country and staying an average of 17 nights.
Driving rural tourism will be a key focus for the destination next year, Raventos said, with the tourist board planning to work with small and medium-size hotels to open new areas for tourism and avoid overcrowding.
She added the tourist board would work closely with the private sector and local government bodies to develop stronger tourism ties in lesser-visited parts of the country.
06.11.2018 09 TOURISM STRATEGY
Costa Rica eyes growth
Rural tourism is a key area for the tourist board
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