How was the past winter season, and what is the forecast for the winter season 2009/2010 in European tourism?

During the winter season 2008/2009, the number of overnight stays fell by 7.2% in comparison to last year's season, representing a decrease of totally 42.6 million, as stated by Eurostat, the European Institute of Statistics of the EU, in its report “Winter season tourism trends 2008/2009”.

Particularly concerned holiday destinations are Spain, Denmark, Portugal and Malta with an average decrease of over 10%, but also France as a classic winter sports region had reported a decrease of 7.4%. Non-EU citizens particularly contributed with 60.1% to this decrease. The average bed occupancy in the winter season 2008/2009 varies considerably between countries, Austria with an overall decrease of only 1.8% still performed pretty well.

The advance bookings of EU citizens for the upcoming winter season 2009/2010 look anything but pleasant. The economic and financial crisis is now fully impacting on tourism. The world's two largest tour operators TUI and Thomas Cook have recently reported a further decline.

• Thomas Cook reported a decrease of 15% for the German source market, and even minus 16% for continental Europe. Looking ahead, they have therefore reduced their capacity of hotel beds and flights by more than 10%, and this with catalogue prices which are at an average 8% below those of the previous year, due to the “favourable purchasing conditions for hotels and flights”.

• TUI Travel reported a decrease of 22% for the winter season in Germany

• Britain reported a decrease of 11% for the winter season

• Northern Europe even a decrease of 22%

Consumers are obviously very cautious with their bookings this year, because of the economic crisis. It might be possible that the figures improve during the winter season, but it is unlikely that they will turn back into positive.

link to web The Eurostat report, with detailed statistics on each country

(only available in English)