IBT Partners provides a range of tailored international business and trade development services to Government agencies and Corporations in the tourism sector, please see Government and Corporate for more detailed information.

The tourism sector has very specific business development challenges. Our tourism experts and business development teams will bring you an insiders high level of understanding with deep expertise, as well as a range of direct tourism contacts and industry networks. In short, we will bring you the knowledge and tools in the tourism sector to support and deliver your international business and trade development goals.

Read more about the tourism  sector:

• Background
• Current challenges
• Opportunities

Tourism background information

Since the 1950s, the tourism sector has been rapidly expanding and diversifying. It has become one of the largest and fastest growing industries in the world. Growth since 1950 has been steady with only a few interruptions, the industry recorded revenues of $25 million, and this trend has continued to the current $940 million¹. Travel and tourism is a key driver of socio-economic development through job creation, enterprise set-up, building of infrastructure, and revenues arising from exports. It is a major contributor towards the GDP, averaging 5% worldwide, and it directly and indirectly contributes towards employment of 6-7%. The EU job market is even more dependent on the tourism industry, as it offers employment to 12% of the labour force⁴. The travel industry encompasses travel for leisure, recreation and holidays (51%), as well as business travel (15%), visiting friends and relatives, pilgrimages, health treatment, and other events¹.

France claims the title of most visited country of the world, with 80 million tourists arriving each year, outnumbering the local population of 65.6 million. The USA with 59.7 million tourists and China with 55.6 million tourists take the second and the third places respectively¹. However, according to the Travel & Tourism Competitiveness Report, both Switzerland and Germany offer the most attractive environment for development of tourism in the years to come, followed by Austria, Sweden, UK, USA, Canada, Spain and Singapore⁷. Europe is today the world leader in international travel, as it hosts 51% of international travelers. Most international travel is intraregional, with four out of five international travelers choosing their own region as their final destination (defined regions are Europe, Americas, Asia Pacific, Middle East and Africa). 

Current challenges in the tourism sector

The tourism industry has coped with the economic crisis exquisitely, now exceeding pre-crisis levels. The year 2011 has brought an increase of international tourist arrivals of 4% to 980 million tourists. This trend is expected to continue but at a somewhat slower rate in 2012. The number of international tourists is expected to reach the 1 billion milestone by the end of this year.

Some regions were hit by the crisis harder than others, and especially Europe suffered the most. The recovery of 3% was slower than elsewhere, as other factors contributed to the slowdown¹. These were especially the Icelandic volcano closing numerous airports, costly oil, and a weak dollar. Apart from airlines, hotels and cruise ships, tour operators suffered the most. To survive, many of them were forced to merge and cut costs⁶.

On the other hand, emerging economies benefited from a strong, often double-digit growth. Read more  about this new trend.

Opportunities in the tourism sector

In order to keep pace with developments in the tourism sector, it is important to have access to actual, accurate and complete information and in-depth expertise. We will help you to address all important issues, including trends, key success factors, advances and innovations, supply and demand development, operational and financial risks, benchmarking, as well as regulations and opportunities for funds and grants.

Some of the key opportunities and trends include:

• Current and future biggest spenders
  

  → There have been some substantial changes in the ranking of tourism spenders in the past few years. Germans are still the heaviest tourism spenders ($77.7 billion in 2010), followed closely by Americans, however China has taken the third position, overtaking the UK, France, Canada, Japan, Italy, Russia, and Australia¹. The situation is also very interesting in South America, where Brazil increased their outbound trips by 26%, as they spent $11.5 billion in 2010, an incredible increase of 54%. Brazilians take advantage of their strong currency and go shopping to Miami and other popular US destinations. First-time international travelers, and foreign studies equally drive the increased demand for international travel.

• Asia Pacific, the emerging travel market
  

  → Asia Pacific has the most dynamic and fastest growing travel market in the world, with 204 million international tourist arrivals in 2010, which is a 13% growth since 2009¹. China is the leading outbound market, followed by South Korea and Malaysia, countries that all exhibited a growth of over 20%². Taiwan, Japan, Singapore and India are markets that also grow at double digits rates. In Asia, 76% of international trips are within their own region, 13% to Europe and 10% to Americas. China is quite an exception, with 25% of all outbound trips heading to Europe, especially Germany, Italy and France. Currently, Chinese tourists travel to Europe in groups due to visa restrictions, but in countries with no such restrictions (i.e. Hong Kong), 70-80% of Chinese travel individually. If visa restrictions to Europe and the USA were eased or abandoned, travel to these destinations would significantly increase. According to Professor Haiyan Song, chair professor of tourism at Hong Kong Polytechnic University, “China’s emergence as the new superpower will define the global economy as well as world tourism over the next 20 years.”² China is expected to achieve 188 million international arrivals by 2015, and by the same time to possibly overtake Germany as the leading source travel market.

• On-line Travel Market

  → On-line travel market is massively expanding, menacing positions of traditional market participants. According to Nate Bucholz of Google, the Internet has overtaken word of mouth as the primary medium for businesses choosing destinations³. Already two thirds of businesses plan their travel using search engines. In Europe, on-line travel booking increased by 17%, and now contributes by half to total bookings⁴. In the USA, the use of social media is expected to have big impact on tourism in the near future, as 52% of adult travelers use social media, and they spend $103 billion for the domestic tourism compared to $70 billion spending of non-social media users². Additionally, 40% of international travelers own a smartphone with Internet access; 40% of them use smartphones to search information about their destination, and about 30% use them to make booking changes during their trip. Numerous travel apps are also on rise, as well as other technologies, such as those integrating GPS with in-built cameras to create interactive city guides.

• Youth market
  

  → Young travelers are increasingly numerous, as they today have higher salaries and live in new social structures that favour travel⁸. Adventurous holidays and extreme sports are common themes of young travelers.

• Eco-tourism
  

  → Eco-tourism becomes very popular with increased environmental awareness. Travelers more often look for unpolluted natural areas; they are attracted by flora and fauna, and its bio-diversity⁵. Eco-tourism also supports local products, and therefore local economy, aiming at preservation of the environment.

• Themed travel experiences in Africa

  → Africa focuses on themed travel experiences. In South Africa, some hotels provide astronomy courses, have in-room telescopes, and a new spaceport to facilitate space tourism is already planed⁹. There has also been a boom in scent tourism, using aromatherapy, to encourage relaxation or energizing.

---

1 World Tourism Organisation. 2011. UNWTO Tourism Highlights 2011. UNWTO Publications Department
2 IPK International. 2011. ITB World Travel Trends Report 2010. Messe Berlin.
3 European Travel Commission. 2011. Online Travel Market. Online at: http://www.newmediatrendwatch.com/world-overview/91-online-travel-market
4 European Commission. 2011. Supporting European Tourism. Online at: http://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/sectors/tourism/index_en.htm
5 European Travel Commission. 2011. Sustainable Tourism. Online at: http://www.etc-corporate.org/modules.php?name=Content&pa=showpage&pid=107&ac=12
6 The Economist. 2011. Horrible holidays. Online at: http://www.economist.com/node/21525904
7 World Economic Forum. 2011. The Travel & Tourism Competitiveness Report 2011. Geneva
8 European Travel Commission. 2006. Tourism Trends for Europe.
9 Richard Haworth.  2010. Holiday trends for 2011 predicted by market researchers. Online at: http://www.richardhaworth.co.uk/news/holiday-trends-2011-predicted-market-researchers

Contact us

If you would like to know more about our tourism sector expertise, please contact us at
tour@ibtpartners.com
for additional information.