European Travel Trends Released by IPK International

Again this year, IPK International released its Global Travel Trends study during Berlin’s tourism fair International Travel Bourse. The study found that Europeans continue their strong preference for sun and sea holidays.

Last year, says the study, Europeans took a total of 356 million outbound trips – up 5% over the previous year – with the “touring” group segment achieving the greatest growth in 2004.

The leading type of holidays for the Europeans, sun and sun, also showed continue growth with Europeans taking 3.6 million more trips (an increase of some 5%) than the year before. As well, in the 2004 growth zone were the “city breaks” and the “countryside” holiday segments.

On the whole, Spain and France were again the most popular outbound destinations for Europeans last year with market shares of 13% and 12%. The most dynamic European source markets with outbound growth were the United Kingdom, France and the Mediterranean region.

The Germans, the Russians and the Dutch also showed a marked increase in outbound travel last year.

On the global level, outbound trips rose by 9% over 2003. Outbound from Asia, however, increased by a whopping 31%, while outbound from America rose by 11% and from Europe a mere 5%.

Germans last year took a total of 74 million outbound trips, which marked a growth of just 2% over the year before. Overnights, however, dropped by the same percentage when compared with the year before.

Spain, Austria and Italy welcomed 45% of all outbound holidays taken by Germans last year.