Strong growth for world outbound travel despite natural disasters and terror attacks, an ongoing shift to ‘safe’ destinations, and controversial protests against ‘overtourism’ in various destinations. These top travel trends and issues of 2017 were the major topics at the 25th World Travel Monitor® Forum in Pisa on November 9-10, 2017, an exclusive industry meeting initiated at the invitation of consultancy IPK International and supported by ITB Berlin.
The global travel industry again set new records over the first eight months of 2017, IPK‘s World Travel Monitor® found. These are the key percentage growth figures for outbound trips, by region and by holiday type (selection):
However, worried about possible terror threats, a high 41% of international travellers might change their travel plans for 2018, with 33% considering shifting to an alternative destination they see as safer, according to World Travel Monitor® figures. But the real risk on an international trip is from crime or health problems, a speaker explained at the Pisa forum.
So-called ‘overtourism’ has become a major problem not just in various high-profile cities but also on other kinds of trips, including winter sport holidays and cruises. Nearly 1 international trip in 10 was affected by overcrowding this year, the World Travel Monitor® found. The international travel and tourism industry needs to find solutions to better manage visitor numbers without restricting growth, experts agreed at the Pisa forum.
In future, one new international growth market could be “Muslim millennials” who are expected to travel in much greater numbers over the coming decade. A ‘seismic transformation’ is under way in the luxury hospitality business where customer demands are changing dramatically. And digital assistants and robots could change the look and sound of the travel industry in years to come.
NORTH AMERICA AND EUROPE DRIVE WORLD OUTBOUND TRAVEL GROWTH
Looking at the different outbound regions, North America showed the highest growth rate with a rise of 7.5% from January to August 2017, followed by Europe with 5.5%.
Compared to previous years, Asia so far performed slightly under the global average with an increase of 5%. Outbound travel from Latin America also showed a growth rate of 5%.
Looking at particular markets, Russia seems to be on a path to recovery as it showed a strong comeback with a rise of 18%. On the other hand, a source market with a negative trend is Mexico, where outbound trips dropped by 5%, which could be due to tensions with the US.
In terms of major world destinations, Spain is amongst this year’s winners with an 11% rise in international visitors, according to World Travel Monitor® figures. In general, Europe is the region with the strongest growth, welcoming around 7% more guests from abroad. Asia had around 5% more international visitors followed by the Americas with a 3% increase.
INTERNATIONAL TOURISM ARRIVALS UP 7%
This year’s positive trends are reflected in the latest figures from the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO). These show strong demand for international tourism during the Northern Hemisphere summer peak season, which for the first time generated more million than 300 million international arrivals in the two peak months of July and August.
Overall between January and August 2017, destinations worldwide welcomed 901 million international tourist arrivals (overnight visitors), 56 million more than in the same period of 2016, according to the latest UNWTO World Tourism Barometer. This corresponds to a robust 7% increase, well above the growth rates of previous years. These figures “reflect the sustained growth in many destinations combined with the recovery of those suffering from security challenges in recent years”, UNWTO commented. In terms of destination regions, growth was strongest in Africa (+9%) and Europe (+8%), followed by Asia and the Pacific (+6%), the Middle East (+5%) and the Americas (+3%).
