TRAVELSAT© reveals that feeling of security has become one of the criteria impacting the most international tourist’s satisfaction, rivalling other expected drivers (accommodation, beauty of landscape, food, climate…).

Commenting on these results, Olivier Henry-Biabaud analyses: “Tourists are consumers but also citizens who travel with their concerns. Beside unemployment, violence and terrorism threats chiefly worry the global opinion today. If DMOs wish to improve their competitiveness and reputation they must sell dreams but also ensure a visitor experience that maximizes feeling of security…which does not mean one policeman behind each tourist, but a slightly different way to provide hospitality. Specific segments like Spa/Welness or Senior travellers are particularly sensitive to this quality criteria”.

Commenting further on provisional results per destination, he adds: “With less than 3% of complaints related to safety issue, Europe is lived by tourists as a safe destination but variations between individual regions or cities remain very high.”

TRAVELSAT© Competitive Index is the reference global and independent survey benchmarking international tourists’ satisfaction and trip quality in a standard way for all destinations, markets and traveller segments. It monitors 80 satisfaction and quality indexes for countries, regions and cities, based on representative opinions of tourists who experienced the destination. TRAVELSAT© is commercialised by TCI Research, an independent company based in Brussels specializing in survey-based research and evaluation in the public and private tourism sectors. More information on www.tci-research.com

Olivier Henry-Biabaud

TCI Research Ldt

18 rue Mareyde – 1150 Brussels (Belgium)

+32 476 70 11 25

olivier.henry-biabaud@tci-research.com