The economic crisis that has hit far and wide does not seem to have had such a bad affect on global tourism after all, judging by figures just released by the German National Tourist Board.
It’s much cheaper going to Germany than to any competitor destinations- Ray Bugeja
In fact, the GNTB reported a record 980 million international arrivals worldwide last year.
The destinations posting the highest growths were in Asia and Europe.
It was only the Middle East that saw a drop in arrivals last year compared to 2010 (-8.4 per cent).
Worldwide, figures were up 4.4 per cent and 5.8 per cent in Europe. The highest rise was in the Asia/ Pacific region, up 6.1 per cent.
Even Africa, parts of which experienced so much turmoil, reported a growth of 0.2 per cent.
For the record, the Americas saw a growth of 4.2 per cent.
Data released by the GNTB under the heading European And Major Asian Outbound Markets Mostly Crisis-Resistant For Travelling In 2002: Impact Of Financial And Economic Crisis On Travel Behaviour shows the USA with the highest respondents (21 per cent) planning no travel in the following 12 months.
The most “crisis-resistant” are given as Japan (65 per cent), Europe (64 per cent), China (62 per cent) and India (59 per cent). The USA features much lower at 38 per cent (see table).
The future looks bright, at least for the tourism industry. The GNTB forecasts that international arrivals will hit the 12.87 billion mark by 2030 when Europe is expected to host 744 million guests. In 2011, Europe had 502.3 million arrivals, as against 336 million in 1995.
What’s more, judging by the German experience, it is thought that tourists will be spending more, including on shopping.
The GNTB estimates that foreign visitors to the country spend an average €33 a day on shopping. Based on figures for the first quarter of this year, the most popular products among tourists visiting Germany are (in order of expenditure) fashion and clothes, watches and jewellery and leather and travel accessories. Department stories continue to take the lion’s share of non-German buyers.
The above seems to contrast sharply with footage and news reports of people demonstrating in the streets against austerity measures implemented or contemplated by their leaders.
When this was pointed out to GNTB chief executive Petra Hedorfer at the Germany Travel Mart in Leipzig earlier this week she attributed it to “value for money”.
“It’s much cheaper going to Germany than to other competitor destinations and what you get in Germany is better,” she replied.
That may indeed be the case but the positive performance and forecasts go beyond the German market. Incidentally, global tourism growth this year is estimated at between three and four per cent.
The answer may perhaps be found in an article that appeared on the Financial Times on Wednesday entitled Germany Keeps Eurozone From Grip Of Recession.
“An unexpectedly robust German economic rebound has allowed the eurozone to escape recession, highlighting diverging fortunes across the region but also the country’s scope for lifting the prospects of weaker rivals,” the newspaper said.
It must be pointed out that the item refers to the eurozone and not to the European Union. Indeed, the Financial Times pointed out that the slowdown experienced by a number of central European countries that did not have the euro was more pronounced than originally thought.
So, the question remains: How does one explain the positive tourism performance and forecasts as against the biting austerity measures, the street protests – at times even violent – and the efforts by many to make ends meet?