World tourism trends 2010

Hopes for moderate growth

World tourism could grow moderately next year after a single-digit decline of about 5% this year, leading international organisations predicted this week. The UN World Tourism Organisation has released the latest worldwide tourist arrivals figures showing a 7% decline to 600 million arrivals between January and August 2009. However, the rate of decline has eased in the past few months, with only a 3% drop in the two high-season months of July and August following a first half-year fall of 8%. Earnings from international arrivals have suffered somewhat more than volumes as consumers tend to trade down, stay closer to home and travel for shorter periods of time, and are estimated to have contracted in real terms by 9% to 10% in the first six months of 2009 compared to the 8% volume fall. International tourism in Europe was down 8% from January to August, with destinations in Central and Eastern Europe the most affected. The Americas was 7% down as a whole, although South America only declined 1%. More positively, Asia Pacific (-5%) recorded growth in August, the Middle East (-8%) had positive numbers between June and September, while Africa had a 4% increase over the eight months. Taking other figures and recent economic data into account, the World Tourism Organisation now expects a 5% decline in international tourist arrivals for the full year 2009 and a 6%-8% fall in tourism earnings. UNWTOs initial forecast for 2010 indicates that international tourist arrivals are likely to witness a moderate recovery next year, with growth of 1%-3%. This outlook reflects the gradual improvement of international tourism figures in recent months, as well as the better-than-expected economic indicators in some major source markets. Asia will show the strongest rebound, while Europe and the Americas will probably take longer to recover. Africa is forecast to continue in positive territory as in 2009, with an extra boost from the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa. Growth is also expected to return to the Middle East, the organisation stated. Separately, around 80 tourism ministers meeting at the World Travel Market in London this week called for global policies that are supportive of the travel and tourism industry as one of the worlds top job creators. As the global economy still struggles, governments were requested not to impose extra burdens on travel, such as fiscal measures, and to maintain stimulus policies in support of tourism as this in turn will contribute to sustainable economic growth. Meanwhile, the World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC) also issued similar figures and forecasts at World Travel Market this week. The organisation, representing major international tourism companies, said the worldwide tourism industry GDP is expected to decline 5.5% this year after minimal growth of 1% in 2008. Rent a car in Bucharest, Source: News from www.fvw.de

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Car Rental industry in 2010

Moderate optimism for growth

The Office of Travel and Tourism Industries recently published 2009 statistics about overseas travel to the U.S. and reported a 6 percent decline in visitors from 2008. The OTTI's 2009 Sector Profile on Rental Cars details how this affected the car rental industry. Compared to the previous year, the number of overseas visitors from countries other than Mexico and Canada using rental cars decreased by 9 percent, and the share of overall visitors decreased 0.9 percentage points to 29.1 percent. While the total number of overseas visitors to U.S. who use rental cars has increased 16 percent since 2002, share of overseas visitors using rental cars is down 7 percent in that time frame. Business travel as the main purpose of trip decreased by 3.2 percent in 2009 from the previous year, but leisure travel increased by 3.4 percent. Of visitors using rental cars, 53 percent were from Western Europe, 20.9 percent were from Asia and 14.5 percent were from South America. South Americans had the greatest increase in market share of travelers to the U.S. using rental cars since 2008. By country of residence, the United Kingdom topped the list of those using rental cars with 19.7 percent, followed by Japan and Germany. Of car renters, the use of personal computer to plan the trip was highest at 50 percent (1.3 percent point increase), but there was a 2.3 percentage point increase in using airlines directly as an information source for trip planning. Of those travelers who used rental cars, the most popular state destination was Florida with 36.1 percent, followed by California and New York, although all states saw decreases in visitors. Of the cities visited by vehicle renters, New York City tops the list with 21.9 percent market share, followed by Orlando and Miami. Of the most popular car renting cities, Miami saw the biggest jump in overseas renters since 2008, while San Francisco had the largest decline since 2008. Advance trip decision time of those using rental cars decreased by 3.8 days, but the length of stay in the U.S. remained the same at 16.3 mean nights. The OTTI expects international travel to pick up, predicting a 2 percent increase in overseas travel in 2010.In many cases, you can use rented vehicles to do a part of your trip in combination with other modes of transport, such as rail transport. Hence, you can benefit from a more sustainable means of transport while guaranteeing the accessibility to your final destination, which is not always well connected. The alternative would be travelling the whole way by car, which would result in more pollution. The combined use of rental vehicles with other transport modalities is an example of good practice and a way of reducing the environmental impact of road transport, the number of kilometres travelled, the noise and the traffic congestion. The workshop on car rental was intended to review consumer experiences when renting a car abroad, and where improvements can be made. One of the participants was Car Rental in Bucharest.

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