ETC Quarterly Europe Tourism Report Cites Global Recovery

ETC Quarterly Europe Tourism Report Cites Global Recovery

According to the European Travel Commission’s second quarterly report on European Tourism in 2010 -- Trends & Prospects, a global recovery in travel is underway. The recovery extends to Europe which has experienced growth in visitor arrivals through the first half of the year with indications of acceleration into the third quarter. This, despite the setbacks to air travel experienced in April due to the volcanic ash cloud.

While the travel recovery in Europe has been generally broad, gains have favored Western Europe while Northern Europe continues to lag behind last year. Some European destinations have benefitted from favorable exchange rate conditions. Russia and Japan have provided heady growth thus far with the U.S. showing signs of recovery in recent months. The anticipated return of U.K. travelers to European destinations also appears to be budding in recent months.

Industry data echo the results from destinations. Passenger growth on European airlines has been consistently positive since the airspace closures in April. Recovery in hotel prices, which typically lags in recovery, is now underway as occupancy rates continued to make gains through August.

“However,” according to the report, “the outlook for global economic recovery has become much less certain. In this tenuous environment, risks are both high and skewed towards the downside. The U.S. economy, in particular, has slowed while the Eurozone showed surprisingly strong in the first half of 2010 in the face of fiscal tightening and sovereign debt worries.”