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Reflections on the European Market
According to eMarketer (www.emarketer.com):
- Online leisure and unmanaged business travel sales in the UK
will total $21 billion this year, a 27% increase over 2006. But the
annual sales growth rate will rapidly decelerate over the next four
years, dropping below the teens.
- More consumers trusted sites with amateur reviews (21%) than
professionally written guides (15%), regardless of whether they are
online tourist guides, such as TimeOut.com, or local information
sites like VisitScotland.com. Sites operated by travel agents and
airlines were even less likely to be a consumer's first source for
reliable destination information.
- Silver surfers had the largest representation of any age group
on UK travel Web sites in March 2007, according to
Hitwise.
Cruise sites in particular were popular with this age group. Hitwise
found that in a recent month, cruise sites received 48% of their
visitor traffic from Internet users ages 55 and older.
- What makes silver surfers such an attractive consumer segment is
that in addition to being avid travelers and financially secure,
they enjoy taking premium vacations. Hitwise's demographic profile
also revealed that more women than men in the UK visited travel Web
sites in March 2007, 53% to 47%, respectively. Similar US
demographic data collected by Hitwise in August 2006 found that
women constituted a minority (47%) of visitors to travel Web sites.
Also, one-quarter of UK visitors to travel Web sites were at the
highest rung on the economic ladder.
- One of the reasons UK travelers hit the Internet is to harness
the experience of other travelers. Over a fifth of UK Internet users
believe Web sites like TripAdvisor that provide reviews by other
travelers are the most trusted online sources for reliable travel
information, according to a January 2007 survey conducted by
Nielsen//NetRatings and commissioned by marketing agency
Harvest
Digital and pan-European advertising network
Adviva.
- Online travel sales in the five major travel markets of Europe —
France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the UK — will total nearly $49
billion this year, up 27% over 2006.
- "Over the next four years, as the European online travel market matures, sales growth in the sector will steadily decrease," says Jeffrey Grau, eMarketer Senior Analyst and the author of the new report, European Online Travel. "Conversely, that means competition for online travel dollars is going to increase."
According to the European Travel Commission:
- Although Europe's growth in international tourist arrivals of just
under 4% in 2006 was below the world average - and well below that of
the regional leaders, Africa and Asia Pacific (+8%) - the increase
represented some 17-million additional arrivals in Europe, or 47% of the
total global increase estimated for 2006.
This all goes to show that, despite growing competition, Europe is holding its own on the world tourism stage.
- European Tourism Insights 2006 - Outlook for 2007, the third annual
report on the state of Europe's travel and tourism industry, shows that,
while it is a mature destination region, Europe's tourism performance
over the past few years has been impressive.
- Arrivals stagnated in 2001
and 2003 - due in large part to the impact of 9/11, terrorism and the
SARS epidemic on traveller confidence - yet the annual growth in
international arrivals in Europe has still averaged around 2.5% since
the beginning of the decade, and 4% since 2003.
As a result, the region has easily maintained its dominant share (54%) of world tourist arrivals.
- Despite uncertainties over the implications of climate change and continuing concerns over health issues and terrorism, the outlook for Europe's tourism in 2007 remains very positive. In line with the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) forecasts, ETC is projecting an overall growth in arrivals of around 3 - 3.5%.
A copy of European Tourism Insights 2006 - Outlook for 2007 can be downloaded from ETC's website.