Europeans keep going on holidays in times of economic slowdown but tend to spend less
(Eurostat) In July, Eurostat reported on the 2007-2008 evolution of tourism in Europe, as well as on some results for the first months of 2009. The publication focuses on the evolution of the number of nights spent in hotels and similar establishments, but also looks at the evolutions from another point of view, namely the holiday trips and expenditure made by EU residents and air passenger transport.
Here the main findings:
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Nights spent at hotels and similar establishments in the EU down by 0.5% in 2008
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Slight increase in hotel nights by residents (0.3%) partly compensates for the negative growth in hotel nights by non-residents (-1.5%).
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The first two months of 2009 show a decrease in hotel nights by 9.1%, a fall having been observed in all 27 European countries for which data is available.
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The participation in tourism - i.e. the share of the population that makes holiday trips during the reference period - grew for domestic trips as well as for outbound trips.
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In the last quarter of 2008, 27.7% of the population made holiday trips, compared to 26.4% in the same period of 2007; the share of the population having made a holiday trip of at least 4 overnight stays remained stable in the last quarter at 12%.
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EU residents made 6.8% more trips in 2008 compared to 2007, the strongest growth was observed for short breaks (9.2%) and domestic trips (7.2%). In the second half of the year, growth was still positive at 5.4%, with a decline for the short holiday trips abroad (-0.6%).
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Throughout 2008, the number of holiday nights spent increased (3.9%), but at a slower pace than the number of trips, leading to a decrease in average length of the trip by 2.7%.
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Tourist expenditure increased by 4.8% in 2008, but the average expenditure per trip dropped by 1.4%. The shorter average length of holiday trips led to an increase in the expenditure per night (2.0%), given the fact that fixed costs such as transport costs to get to the destination were allocated to fewer days.
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Air passenger transport in the European Union grew by 0.5% over the entire year but contracted in all segments - national transport -8.7% and international transport -3.3% - in the last four months of 2008 compared with the same period of 2007.
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Employment in the tourist accommodation sector slightly increased in 2008 (0.1%) but the evolution was less favourable compared to the entire horeca sector (1.3%) or the overall economy (1.0%).
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The number of employees (i.e. persons employed excluding the self-employed) in the tourist accommodation sector went down by 0.3% in 2008 while full-time employment dropped by 2.3% in the second half of the year.