REPORT – BERLIN – ITB 2008: Tourism industry continues its strong pace not only in European level but also in global level according to the results presented by IPK’s World Travel Monitor, the world’s sole and largest tourism study monitoring the pulse of international tourism. The World Travel Monitor data derives from population-representative surveys taken in…
REPORT – BERLIN – ITB 2008: Tourism industry continues its strong pace not only in European level but also in global level according to the results presented by IPK’s World Travel Monitor, the world’s sole and largest tourism study monitoring the pulse of international tourism. The World Travel Monitor data derives from population-representative surveys taken in the individual source markets around the globe. More than 500,000 interviews are conducted every year.
World Travel Trends
On the global level, outbound trips rose by +6% in 2007, thus more strongly than the previous year. This growth was above all fueled by further overall positive economic growth, as well as the fact that increasingly more people, especially in populous Asia, can afford to travel abroad.
All continents registered an increase in outbound travel in 2007. Asia recorded the highest increase (+10%), followed by America (+7%) and Africa (5%). Yet also Europe, already having a high outbound travel intensity,
recorded an increase of +5%.
European Travel Trends
In 2007, the Europeans took a total of 407 million outbound trips (+5% over the previous year), thereby spending 3.9 billion nights abroad (+5%). These outbound trips generated a volume of spending totaling 381 billion euros (+7%).
On the whole, the European outbound trips developed more positively in 2007 than in the year before.
The most dynamic European source market with 16% more trips in 2007 was Russia, followed by Spain (+15%) and Poland (+14%). However, also the Czech source market (+11% more trips) as well as Norway (+7%) and Italy / Sweden (+6% each) still show above average growth.
With a gain of 15%, the “Touring” segment demonstrated the strongest growth in 2007 from a pan-European perspective. “Countryside” holidays also posted an above average growth of 9%. The “Sun&Beach” holiday, the leading type of
holiday for the Europeans, also gained another +6% and the “CityBreak” segment recorded a 5% gain.
Again in 2007, Spain proved to be the most popular outbound destination for the Europeans, garnering a market share of 13%. France comes in second in the ranking of most popular destinations, followed by Germany and Italy. All told, 40% of the European trips were made to just these four destinations.
German Travel Trends
In 2007, the Germans took a total of 297 million trips (domestic and outbound), thereby spending 1.5 billion nights away from home. In comparison to the previous year, travel volume thus rose by +4% and overnight stay volume by +3%.
The domestic and outbound trips taken by the Germans in 2007 led to a total spending volume of 124 billion euros (+1% increase).
In 2007, the Germans took 220.8 million domestic trips and 75.9 million outbound trips. In comparison to the previous year, domestic trips rose by +4%, and outbound trips by +2%. Both, the German domestic as well as outbound trips developed more positively in 2007 than in the year before.
46% of all the domestic and outbound trips taken by the Germans were holiday trips, which increased by +2% compared to the previous year. Other private trips (with a 40% market share) meanwhile increased by +3%. However, at +11%, German business trips recorded the by far largest growth.
In 2007, the Germans took a total of 135.6 million holidays. Thereof, 83.4 million were domestic holidays and 52.2
million outbound holidays. Compared to the previous year, domestic holidays increased by +3%, whereas outbound holidays, like the year before, decreased again (-1%).
With a market share at 17%, Spain was also the leading outbound holiday destination for the Germans in 2007,
followed by Austria (15%) and Italy (14%). For many years now, these three countries have been the by far preferred holiday destinations of the Germans abroad.
Among domestic destinations, Bavaria was again the undisputed market leader in 2007 (commanding a 20% market share of all the German domestic holiday trips). Lower Saxony ranks as the second most popular holiday destination while Baden-Wuerttemberg comes in third.
Theodore is the Co-Founder and Managing Editor of TravelDailyNews Media Network; his responsibilities include business development and planning for TravelDailyNews long-term opportunities.
