According to the records for the first quarter of 2015, European tourism is heading for a positive and steady growth. Consequently, there's need for relevant industry players to come together and join forces so as to sustain this growth.
According to the report by European Travel Commission “European Tourism 2015 – Trends & Prospects”, in the first months of this year most European destinations recorded positive results. This growth is attributed to the fact that there were increased travel activities in the intra-regional markets, plus the economic outlook of the entire European continent looked promising.
The report also confirmed that this positive growth was due to the weak Euro and low fuel prices which attracted many travelers from the U.S. The first months of 2015 show data that depicts a steady rise in figures representing international arrivals and overnights. Several destinations in Europe also recorded double-digit growth. Among countries that improved tremendously was Iceland, Croatia, Montenegro, Romania, Hungary, Slovenia, Austria and Serbia. They recorded +31.4%, +24.6%, +23.2%, +13.1%, +12.1%, +11.7%, +11.4% and +11% respectively.
It's worth noting that Europe's biggest travel destinations have experienced soft economic respite, thus leading to more visitors being attracted due to the affordability of those destinations. To be precise, the report has been focusing on Germany as a major European outbound travel destination this year. The trend was attributed to weak Euro exchange rate coupled with factors such as low oil prices and stable wages.
Again, UK's market indicators now attribute the surge in travel traffic to shrinking unemployment rate and falling oil prices. Generally, most of the regions continue to record positive growth.
It is said that these regions have been actively participating in extensive marketing and promotional activities, hence the results. What's more, the weather has generally been friendlier, which encouraged visitors, especially from France and Germany, to take winter breaks in ski resorts.
The European market still continues to record positive growth from long-haul visitors coming from countries like the U.S. Visitors coming from these regions are encouraged by the fact that the economy is fast recovering, thereby boosting the attractiveness of European travel destinations.
The American dollar is currently headed to parity with the Euro. This is a sure sign that the economy is recovering. It is also an indicator that travels from the U.S to the European destinations will increase by 6% this year.
However, reports haven't been so positive about visitors coming from Russia. The only two regions that reported an improvement were Montenegro and Romania.
In the Asian markets, Chinese economy dropped but didn't affect visitors coming from this end. In Japan however, there were fears attributed to declined spending habits by consumers. Lastly, even though Brazil saw tax cuts on waged citizens, restricted spending was the main reason why reports were different from the last year.