Trends relevant for tourism areas
Desk studies illustrated the existence of a large variety of trends that define the development of tourism areas in Europe and across the world. This includes trends on the dimension and type of tourism, on digitalisation, and on the environment and sustainability. Survey findings helped to differentiate short-term trends related to the COVID pandemic from trends that are likely to stay in the next years.
Digitalisation trends are most likely here to stay. On average 64% of the survey respondents indicated that digitalisation trends will continue for at least the next 10 years. Also, a large share of respondents assume that environmental trends are long-lasting. On the contrary, trends related to the dimension and type of tourism in a region are largely expected to last the next 2-4 years (39%), or are assessed as temporary (28%).
Click on the sub-headings to read more about temporal, short-term and long-term trends.
Several tendencies currently observed are closely related the COVID-19 pandemic. The following five current tendencies are the most important trends that may loose importance soon:
- ◊ Access restrictions for tourists and visitors,
- ◊ Overall decline in visitors and tourists,
- ◊ Increase of domestic visitors and tourists,
- ◊ Decline in businesses and employment in the sector,
- ◊ Less tourists traveling by plane.
Survey findings suggest thus that the tourism sector recovers once restrictions to contain further spreading of the COVID-19 pandemic are lifted.
Over the next 2-4 years the following tendencies remain most important according to the survey respondents:
- ◊ A decline of visitors from outside Europe,
- ◊ Decline of tourist in destinations that pre-COVID times coped with overtourism,
- ◊ An overall decline in visitors and tourists,
- ◊ An increase of tourists visiting neighbouring countries,
- ◊ Less travelling in groups compared to pre-COVID times.
Survey findings suggest thus that some of the effects of the pandemic requires some time to recover, such as travelling over large distance. Survey findings also suggest that it may take some time for tourists to feel comfortable among many persons again.
Whereas survey findings on temporary trends suggest a swift recovery of the tourism sector, these findings illustrate that a recovery of the tourism sector may be unequally distributed across Europe. The most important trends over 2-4 years suggest that tourism regions that largely rely on tourists from far away as well as popular destinations take longer to recover than other areas.
In the long term, survey respondents expect an increased focus on environmental impact and digitalisation in tourism. A majority of survey respondents referred to trends in these fields when assessing the importance of trends for the next 10 years. The five most important long-term trends are:
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Increased environmental management in tourism, - ◊ Increased demand for local and regional products,
- ◊ Increased need for skills in tourism,
- ◊ Increased use for digital control and information tools,
- ◊ Increased use of digital tools to manage tourism destinations and businesses.
Desk research confirms that environmental and digitalisation trends gained importance during the pandemic. Policy initiatives could further enhance these tendencies, making sure that these trends are here to stay, and limit challenges to materialise these trends in all European tourism areas.