dossier sur le tourisme et le développement durable

The tourist offer
Hotel occupation rate: supply / demand balance and seasonal nature
The rate of hotel occupation is quite varied. It depends on the success of the various
destinations and more particularly on the ingenuity of the marketing policies to attract tourists
out of season. For 1999 the figures collected went from 12% in Bosnia-Herzegovina to 65% in
Greece (Figure 11).
*GR
MC
CY
FR
EG
ES
**MT
TR
**SI
TN
MA
IL
LY
IT
LB
HR
**SY
CS
**BA
* 2000 data
** 2001 data
Source: WTO, 2004
Figure 11: Hotel occupation rate (%) in 2002
0 20 40 60 80 100
From the point of view of supply, the choices made in terms of promotion, marketing and the
development of tourist products determine the annual distribution of tourists. There are six times
more tourists in August than in February in Greece. The seasonal nature of the stays affects the
hotel occupation rate since the latter reaches more than 90% in August and goes down to 30%
or less in January. The case is the same in Tunisia.
Some countries profit from their geographical position and from the variety of the international
tourists to minimise the effects of the low/high seasons. Egypt, for instance, welcomes tourists
from Europe in winter and tourists from Arabian nations in summer (Figure 12).
Figure 12: Monthly distribution of the overnight stays in Egyptian hotels in the Mediterranean regions
250000
200000
150000
100000
50000
Source: Egyptian Ministry for Tourism, 2000
0
Other
South, North
America & Australia
Europe
Arab
Egyptian
Other countries like Monaco have managed to spread their tourist activities throughout the year
(Figure 13). Cyprus, where the period between October and March welcomes only one quarter
of the tourists, has set up an inducement programme for winter tourists. International tourism is
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