A Eurobarometer survey on ‘The attitudes of Europeans towards tourism 2010’, published on 9 March, states that around 80% of Europeans plan to travel this year during their holidays. This figure is a significant increase over 2009, when only 65% of EU citizens travelled for leisure.

European Commission Vice-President Antonio Tajani said the results were encouraging for European tourism, which ranks third in terms of GDP and employment in Europe, accounting for 5% and 6%, respectively. He also stressed the importance of continuing to develop the tourism industry using the Lisbon Treaty to analyse the sector from the European perspective.

This is the third large-scale survey of this kind by the Commission, which now plans to conduct one annually. More than 30,000 randomly selected citizens in the 27 member states plus Norway, Iceland, Croatia, Turkey and the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia were polled for the Eurobarometer survey in February. Relying on this type of survey, the EU executive wishes to review European travel and tourism trends over the short and medium term. The surveys also help the tourism industry to react in terms of announced trends.

The most popular destination for the third consecutive year is Spain (10.4%), followed closely by France (9.9%) and Italy (9.2%). Half the respondents said they planned to spend their holidays in Europe. The upbeat outlook for tourism seems to stem partly from Europeans’ increased confidence over being able to finance their holidays: 46% said they had sufficient funds to do so.

The Eurobarometer report is available at ec.europa.eu/enterprise/sectors/tourism/index_en.htm

Hotels

The year 2009 was “modest” for the hotel industry in the European Union, which expanded by only 1%, with nearly 1.375 million rooms listed, according to a study by MKG-Hospitality, published on 8 March. Two categories showed a sharp increase, however: +6,360 rooms in two-star establishments and +5,100 in four-star hotels. This reflects the “strengthening of the two most representative categories in Europe,” states the study. Accor still holds the lead among hotel groups in Europe with its 243,004 rooms (+0.9%) operated under different banners, ahead of the cooperative chain founded in the United States, Best Western (87,017, +3.3%) and Britain’s InterContinental Hotels Group (86,084, +1.7%). By banner, Best Western has the highest presence in Europe, beating out two Accor Group banners: Ibis (70,648 rooms) and Mercure (55,386 rooms).