International arrivals in Europe on fourth quarter of 2016 are increasing, boosted by long haul travellers
The latest results from the Air Travellers’ Traffic Barometer* produced by European Cities Marketing and ForwardKeys highlight a recovery for International arrivals in Europe on Q4 2016, marked by Intra European flows’ return to flat performance and good progress of long haul travellers.
Expected Performance of most growing European destinations for long haul travellers. (Arrivals on the book Jan – Mar 2017 vs. Jan – Mar 2016; Share of Jan – Mar 2017)
Number of long haul travellers increased by 3.9% in Q4 2016 compared to Q4 2015
All International arrivals in Europe grew by 1.4%, especially fuelled by the surge of North America while Intra European flows stalled. The more beneficial exchange rate of the USD vs. Euro and GBP could be behind this very positive performance. Central & South American regions show a highly positive trend helped by visa waivers to countries such as Peru since March or Colombia since January 2016, the two fastest growing countries in the region.
Intra European flows, accounting for 60% of arrivals in Europe as per ForwardKeys database, have returned to a flat performance after four consecutive negative quarters.
Asia & Oceania and Africa have interrupted the previous negative trend of Q2 and Q3 2016 vs 2015. This is most likely related to the comparison with a very troubled Q4 2015 in Paris. Concerns over security affected all of Europe, as combined trips among its cities are very popular for long haul visitors.
Booking situation depicts a positive scenario for Q1 2017 compared to Q1 2016
Chinese New Year is taking centre stage as a major trigger for Chinese travel, pushing Asia & Oceania share to 15%. Central & South America maintain their rising path in bookings, following a successful Q4 2016, while the drop in bookings issued from Middle East is considerable.
Top growing destinations regarding bookings for Q1 2017 are distributed throughout the continent
Among the top 10 European destinations, only Istanbul sees a delayed booking situation vs. last year. This is no doubt related to the pressing terror threats and attacks. Unlike in the previous barometer, top growing destinations are not so much related to a sand and seaside experience but display a more varied map of northern and southern cultural corners with cities such as: Madeira, Lisbon, Tallinn, Helsinki, Copenhagen, Stockholm, Madrid, Venice, Seville and Milan.
All ECM members have exclusive access to the complete European Cities Marketing-ForwardKeys Air Travellers’ Traffic Barometer with all the graphs and analysis.
*This analyse is based on Air Reservation Data propriety of ForwardKeys® as of 31st December 2016. Perimeter: Includes air reservations made by passengers arriving in Europe and staying at least one night in destination, therefore excluding: “Transits”, “Day trips”, “One-way trips” and “Returns”.
Arrival period: 1 October – 31 December 2016 vs. 1 October – 31 December 2015.
Booking situation for next quarter: 1 January – 31 March 2017 vs. 1 January – 31 March 2016 according to bookings issued as of 31 December 2016 and as of 31 December 2015.
**ENDS**
* European Cities Marketing is a non-profit organisation improving the competitiveness and performance of leading cities of Europe by providing a platform for convention, leisure and city marketing professionals to exchange knowledge, best practice and widen their network to build new business. European Cities Marketing is promoting and linking the interests of members from more than 100 major cities in 36 countries.
Contact information
Flavie Baudot, press@europeancitiesmarketing.com, +33 380 56 02 00
* ForwardKeys.com is a service of Forward Data S.L, a Market Research and Consulting Company registered in Spain. ForwardKeys is a Business Intelligence service bringing a new approach to operational traveller data intelligence for Hotels Chains, Tourism boards and Destination Management Organizations (DMOs) leveraging non confidential Air reservation information. ForwardKeys provides to:
‐ DMOs and Tourism Boards with travellers’ trends information and means to monitor and measure the impact of their marketing efforts to drive more business to their destination.
‐ Hotel chains with ways to quantify future demand and anticipate market trends to optimize sales, marketing and revenue management efforts, using traveller’s reservation, source market, arrival, return date and future travel information.
Contact information
Sébastien Cron, press@forwardkeys.com, +33 972 221 570