EUROPE INBOUND TRENDING
EUROPE INBOUND TRENDING TRENDS & FIGURES DESTINATIONS The ETOA forecasts a “possible” huge hike in Chinese visitors to Europe next year, supported by data from ForwardKeys, who state the boom in Chinese outbound travel is set to continue unabated. Laurens van den Oever, ForwardKeys’ Chief Marketing Officer, who was speaking at the World Bridge Tourism conference in London, said: “The Chinese dragon is breathing more hotly than ever. Bookings for outbound travel during Chinese New Year, in February 2018, are currently 40% ahead of where they were at the same time last year.” World Bridge Tourism is a project supported by the European Union, in order to increase the flows of of China as an origin market, and the changing preferences and behaviour patterns of Chinese visitors. Alongside WBT, GEM, the European tourism association’s member-exclusive B2B networking event, matching tourism suppliers with global, European and domestic tour operators facilitated 20,000 one on one meetings, 30% more than in 2016. This was due to an injection of one hundred tour operator buyers from China who were in London as part of the World Bridge Tourism project. ETOA CEO, Tom Jenkins, said the combination of GEM and World Bridge Tourism brought together “the most potent group of professional tourism buyers we have ever hosted”, adding, Tom Jenkins CEO, ETOA EUROPE: INBOUND TRAVEL TRENDS Chinese dragon “breathing hotter than ever” in Europe visitors from China to the EU. World Bridge Tourism Shanghai was held in conjunction with ITB China on the 9 th -10 th May 2017 and World Bridge Tourism London took place alongside the Global European Marketplace on the 2 nd -3 rd November. The programme combined a conference and a B2B workshop between tourism-related EU companies (particularly SMEs) and Chinese operators. The project was supported by an extensive programme of research and webinars aimed at increasing the understanding of the needs of Chinese visitors within the European tourism community. World Bridge Tourism is the curtain raiser for the “2018 EU– China Tourism Year”, during which an unprecedented level of attention will be paid to the growing importance “Together they represent over UK£12 bn of expenditure on hospitality, transport, visitor attractions and other goods and services consumed by tourists.” Demand for Europe is rising in all the core origin markets – not just China, says the ETOA CEO: “When you look at the USA, which is obviously the engine for European inbound tourism, figures are up between 10% and 15% for the next year. Looking at China, which is a more volatile market, bookings for next year, during the Golden week, look like they’re going to be way up – maybe 40% year-on-year. Anything could happen between now and then, and this is not the main booking period. China is becoming a notoriously late booking market” LOOKING AT CHINA (…) BOOKINGS FOR NEXT YEAR, DURING THE GOLDEN WEEK, LOOK LIKE THEY’RE GOING TO BE WAY UP – MAYBE 40% YEAR- ON-YEAR.
EUROPE INBOUND TRENDING DESTINATIONS Hotel & Tourism SMARTreport #37 2018 Winter Edition 35 Elena Kountoura Greece’s Minister for Tourism FOR 2020, WE AIM TO HAVE MORE THAN 35-MILLION TOURISTS AND MORE THAN 20% EXTRA CAPACITY Greek destinations Heraklion and Athens are “standout performers in 2017”, according to recent research for World Travel Market London. The Greek National Tourism Organisation expected a recordbreaking 30 million international visitors to Greece for 2017 – up 7% Greece’s Minister for Tourism, Elena Kountoura, told Cleverdis that tourism truly unites people: “It’s all about open borders, freedom and democracy, and the right of everyone to be able to travel. At the same time, the megatrend is for people, when traveling, to seek authentic experiences. In the past, there were a lot of all-inclusive visit the country that spawned democracy, philosophy, and the Olympic Games. But in order to promote the entire Greek territory, we have developed thematic travel – for example religious tourism, with all the monuments that can be found here, or the holy mountain. We have the Greek gastronomy, there is a big GREECE EMERGES THANKS TO TOURISM SECTOR All set for a record-breaking year with visitor arrivals reaching 30m year-on-year – as the destination has invested in its tourism industry and improved its image overseas. Greece’s tourism policies have helped to extend the travel season, promote different thematic products, open new markets and boost connectivity by air, land and sea. For the last two years, Greece’s growth has been nearly twice the global industry average of 3.9%. The World Travel & Tourism Council estimates that tourism in 2017 will help boost the Greek economy by 6.9% – supporting nearly one million jobs and representing 20% of the country’s GDP. packages, but in the last two years we have been developing, with our regional offices, a lot of thematic products so we can give a broad number of different opportunities and choices to our visitors. In Greece, we attempt to promote a balance with sustainable tourism in such a way to enable tourists to truly benefit from what the regions have to offer. Our historical and cultural product range is huge. It’s not only the Acropolis, the museums, Poseidon or Delphe or Meteora, it’s something bigger. It’s the root of western civilization, and in that sense, everyone has a dream to interest in MICE tourism, and we have beautiful weather, so people can enjoy the outdoors while here for business. Then there’s nautical tourism, for which we are very famous, but also, we are promoting winter sports, cycling tours, rock-climbing, and wellness and medical tourism thanks to our over 700 thermal centres.” What is the minister’s goal for the future of tourism in Greece? “For 2020, we aim to have more than 35-million tourists and more than 20% extra capacity, and for tourism to account for 22% of GDP (+2%)”
