Greece and Turkey have suffered in terms of arrivals performance, Euromonitor International reports based on World Tourism Organisation data.
For Greece, Euromonitor cites an 11% decrease in arrivals. Yet, this figure is derived from the data provided by the Bank of Greece for the first two months of the year only and, obviously, is not enough to support a similar estimate for the entire year.
For Turkey its analysts record a sustained decline in demand, with year-to-date 2016 negative growth of 10%
Egypt and Tunisia are among the countries which have registered some of the biggest losses in terms of % volume growth in arrivals of -46% and -18.7% respectively for 2016 YTD. The latest events with the crashed Egyptian aircraft are expected to further impact negatively the performance of the tourism sector in the country. Specifically, the government must reassure travellers and potential tourists that the country is doing enough to uproot terrorism and secure the safety of travellers.
Currently, Egypt’s tourism is surviving very much thanks to the heavily discounted prices to lure budget travellers and the question is how much are these low spending tourists ready to visit Egypt in light of the recent events. In addition, the recent plane disasters indicate that investments in infrastructure, including air transportation is being ignored to favour other areas that seem to be of greater concern to the government at the moment.
Hong Kong is another country globally which has registered somewhat poor performance in terms of % volume growth of arrivals for YTD 2016. This is really on the back of slowing number of Chinese travellers to Hong Kong due to anti-mainland protests, changing preferences of Chinese travellers to visit other markets as competing destinations such as European countries liberalise visa policies. Hong Kong faces political and social issues and has overcrowded over years due to the influx of mainland Chinese tourists into the country. The strengthening of the US dollar, which is pegged to the Hong Kong dollar, is making it more expensive to shop in this part of the world, which is among the key expenditures for Chinese tourists. Furthermore, other countries have focused their marketing strategies to target the rising affluent Chinese middle class, thus contributing increasing challenges to Hong Kong. More Chinese tourists will continue to divert to other destinations including South Korea, France and the UK.
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