The negative impact of the 2008/2009 economic crisis is significantly waning, international tourism arrival figures are again rising at rates generally larger than the general global recovery overall and the world's popular tourist destinations rapidly shifting towards developing countries.
Cross-border arrivals were up to almost 7% in 2010, compared to 2009 figures.
According to the World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO), a subunit of the United Nations, all regions of the world profited from growth in this sector. The greatest growth, however came from emerging countries, as far as economic prowess is concerned.
At the opening of this year's ITB Berlin, Taleb Rifai (
right), Secretary General of the World Tourism Organisation, confirmed that the emergence of new destinations in the world tourism market was changing the tourist landscape radically. "The world has opened up, new destinations have emerged. Over the past 10 years we have witnessed the rise of emerging countries. Tourism has followed the same trend," Rifai said.
According to UNWTO statistics, emerging economies accounted for 38% of the global tourism market, in terms of arrivals in 2000. By 2010, and despite the slowdown following 9/11, this number increased to 47%. Of the 935 million tourists today, nearly half come from emerging economies.
This development brings with it tremendous opportunities for the hotel industry. While in traditional travel markets, such as Europe, hotel brands need to fight for market share, the hotel industry in developing countries cannot keep pace with the urgent need to expand their bed count.
Hotel markets in developing countries such as Thailand and, until recently, Tunisia, for example, exceed "western" standards – not commensurate at all to their overall economies. However, there are many new regions which are fast being discovered by travellers – always seeking to discover new destinations. According to an Amadeus report, travellers today are looking to be the first to have been somewhere. More and more people are trying to one-up each other. This is only possible in exotic destinations, most of which are currently located in Asia, according to the UNWTO.
According to UNWTO figures, Travel to Asian destinations has increased by 13%, in 2010, compared to the previous year. Incoming tourist figures for Africa went up 6% in 2010. Africa was the only continent that had an overall positive growth in 2009, following the collapse of world economies.
Europe only registered a rise of 3% in incoming tourist figures. UNWTO analysts believe that this figure would have been higher if not for the Eyjafjallajokull Vulcano eruption last year.
American incoming tourism went up 8%. UNWTO believes that even this figure would have been higher if not for the AH1N1 virus epidemic.
Rifai believes that the world trend towards travel in developing countries is in part a result of good value for money, primarily because western income levels of sinking. Huge international events, such as Olympic games slated for Brazil, the World Expo in Shanghai and the Fifa World Cup in South Africa has sunk into western mindsets that the orient and the south can hold their own in the event and hospitality sector.
China, Thailand and Brazil can hardly be called off-the-beaten track. However, new destinations, such as the 1001Nights destinations of Central Asia, for example, will continue to make developing countries attractive – particularly for western travellers, looking for the exotic, satiated by the increasing conformity found on the western tourism market.
Of course, this is forcing western countries to rethink their marketing and customer retention strategies, but it also poses enormous expansion potential for hoteliers in developing markets.
