Industry Reports & Trends

By year’s end, more than nine in 10 companies with managed travel programs will be using an online booking tool for transient individual travel and, more than four in 10 will be doing so for meetings/group travel. This was a key finding from the July 2003 Technology Trends Survey co-sponsored by PhoCusWright Inc. and the National Business Travel Association (NBTA).

The Association of European Airlines has released traffic figures for the week ending September 7. While generally an improvement on the previous week, the results gave little cause for encouragement. This was especially the case since a damaging pilot strike in weeks 36-37 of 2002 depressed the baseline, causing this year’s figures to be artificially inflated.

An increase in foreign arrivals during the early part of the summer so far has helped cancel the losses seen in the early part of the year. And in an effort to stem some profiteering, particularly at eating establishments, government inspectors continue to visit tourism destinations to inspect prices and services, according to Development Minister Akis Tsohatzopoulos.

Global tourism is on the road to recovery despite worries over terrorism and the SARS virus, with visitor numbers expected to increase strongly for the foreseeable future, the British research group Mintel said.

Greece’s tourism sector causes losses some one billion dollars a year to the country’s economy because of underdeveloped tourism activities, according to a recent study by the Tourism Research and Forecast Institute.

More than two million tourists arrived in Turkey for holidays during July, an increase of 10% over the same month last year, according to the Turkish government, which shows that Greece’s neighbor quickly overcame the negative results the tourism sector suffered because of the recent war in Iraq.

Three years ago, some $26 billion of leisure, unmanaged business and corporate travel were purchased online worldwide. Latest forecasts by Internet specialists, such as U.S.-based PhoCusWright, see global online travel sales reaching more than $80 billion this year.

The airline industry turned the corner in June, according to Giovanni Bisignani, IATA`s Director General and CEO. “Although we are still well below where we were at the same time last year, travelers are returning,” he said. “We expect that traffic recovery will intensify through July and August as a result of pent-up demand and the northern hemisphere summer holiday season,” he said.

Greece’s tourism enterprises haven’t felt such negative pressure in 30 years, says the Hellenic Association of Travel & Tourism Agents. “The negative economic effects experienced thus far have reached dangerous proportions for the future of tourism enterprises,” says the association.

Hotel Study 2003, which has just been released by JBR Hellas, shows that the gross operating profit of Greek hotels last year dropped by some four points. Resort and first-class units are reportedly down even more by 5-10%.