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Update of Monthly Tourism Indicators 24 March 2010. Reflections on 2009.
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Update of Monthly Tourism Indicators 24 March 2010
Reflections on 2009 • Thanks to better-than-anticipated year-end data, we now estimate that visitor arrivals contracted by 5.2% in 2009, as against our previous estimate of -5.6%, but this was still worse than our January 2009 forecast of -4.6%. • The upward revision reflects widespread improvements, particularly in Europe, Asia Pacific and the Middle East. • Although the downturn was truly global, strong evidence of regional variations was apparent. • Reflecting a broader macroeconomic trend, emerging markets typically benefited from earlier and more vigorous rebounds.
Reflections on 2009 cont • The clear exception was Central & Eastern Europe, where the collapse in business activity led to a very severe drop in visitor arrivals. • 2009 was also notable for the dramatic retrenchment of tourists as average spending fell sharply. • This may have been linked to a wider trend of consumer deleveraging in mature economies, as the global economic crisis sapped confidence and sparked a sharp deterioration in labour market conditions.
Outlook for 2010 • IATA data shows that airline passenger traffic growth has continued to rebound strongly, no doubt on the back of significant base effects. Volumes were up 6.4% in January compared to a year ago. • Looking ahead, our forecast is for overnight visitor arrival growth of 2.5% in 2010, with the strongest gains concentrated in emerging markets. However, this would still leave arrivals down on 2008 levels. • Moreover, spending is unlikely to gain real traction, with the scars of the global recession still painfully visible. Real visitor export growth is projected at less than 1%, constrained by continued weakness in mature economies. In short, the recovery will be fairly subdued.
Airline passenger traffic growth continues to rebound strongly…