Russia, China Continue to Show Explosive Growth as Outbound Markets for Europe

Preliminary figures indicate that while USA, UK, and Germany maintain their positions as the leading bed-night source markets for European cities, Russia and China exhibit the highest growth rates among the leading source markets in 2013.

This strategic focus on international visitors is the main reason for the triumph of the cities and gives Tourism managers every reason to be confident in the strength of the European city tourism industry. Total foreign and domestic bed-nights increased by 3.6% over 2012, international bed-nights having increased at four times the rate of domestically-sourced bed-nights.

Leading source markets USA (+2.6%), Germany (+5.0 %), UK (+8.8 %), and France (+5.6 %) remain strong with positive increases in sourced bed-nights in 2013. Spain (-3.1%) and Italy (-3.6%) continue to decline in terms of total bed-nights contributed to European cities, but both markets maintain their positions as two of the strongest sources for European city tourism representing a combined 10% of total international bed-nights in 2013.

Russia and China as source markets once again boast the highest growth rates with Russia nearly matching the number of bed-nights contributed by Spain in 2013.

London, Paris, Berlin, Rome, and Barcelona maintain their positions as the European cities claiming the highest number of total foreign and domestic bed-nights. Madrid, Prague, Vienna, and Munich remain among the top ten cities in terms of total foreign and domestic bed-nights while Hamburg manages to secure the final spot in the top ten rankings with an impressive increase in bed-nights of 8.8%.

While the traditional leaders of the European city tourism industry grow at respectable rates, it is the lower ranking cities in this sample that show the most impressive year-over -year increases in bed-nights. Leuven (Belgium) reports an increase in bed-nights of 26%, while Croatian cities Zagreb and Split report increases of 12% and 22%, respectively. Bratislava’s increase of nearly 17% over 2012 has the city exceeding two million bed-nights in 2013. These remarkable increases indicate a European city tourism industry charging forward as a whole.

“European Cities continue to be drivers of European Tourism. Internationalization is one of the key words in the tourism development of many countries” declares Ignasi de Delas, President of European Cities Marketing. He continues: “The ECM Benchmarking Report clearly shows that the continuous success of city tourism in Europe is based upon a rich mix of source markets. In 2013, international bed nights grew at about three times the rate of domestic tourism growth in European cities. Bed-night numbers representing tourists from BRIC markets such as Russia and China grew tremendously over the previous years, proving once again the importance and potential of these countries as strong source markets for the European tourism industry.

“European Cities can cope with negative growth in traditional markets, such as in Spain or Italy due to the economic crisis. The cities’ strategic focus on international visitors is the main reason for the triumph of the cities, which gives City Tourism Managers every reason to be confident in the strength of the European tourism industry.”

European Cities Marketing, the network of leading city tourist offices, convention bureaus and city marketing organizations, reports on the state of the European tourism industry with its annual issue of the ECM Benchmarking Report. Early data from a sample of 64 cities show healthy overall growth in the European city tourism industry.

Source: Travel Daily News