European City Tourism Monitor Report: The Sun will Shine this Summer

According to the results of the 10th European City Tourism Monitor, by the European City Marketing (ECM), city tourism professionals participating in the survey expect bednights in the 3rd quarter of 2011 to grow, compared to the same period in 2010.

‘Positive expectations’ outnumber ‘negative expectations’ by 77 percentage points (71 in the last survey). International markets clearly seem to be more promising than domestic markets. The leisure segment seems to account for much of this optimism, but confidence in the business segments is also expressed.

In terms of international source markets, experts continue to be most confident about growth in the German market, and the prospects for the French market have risen substantially.

Every region in Europe is confident of having a good summer, and no one is expecting a decrease in bednights. The expectations for changes in hotel rates vary between growth and maintenance, depending on the region of Europe.

The confidence that total bednights will grow in 2011 has risen substantially in this survey, especially when considering confidence that growth rates will be above 5%.

Considering total bednights for the whole of 2011, growth of between 1 and 5% is by far what is most expected. Nevertheless, it is visible that the extremely positive expectations are becoming more widely held with each monitor. Relative to the last two surveys, expectations of stagnancy have decreased. Perhaps one of the most remarkable results in this latest survey is that not a single respondent is expecting a decrease in bednights for the whole of 2011.

The European City Tourism Monitor is a project of ECM’s Research and Statistics Working Group. Every quarter, a report is produced on the expectations of surveyed ECM members about tourism performance in their respective cities for the following three months. The next edition – Monitor XI – will take place at the beginning of October 2011.

For further details on this report, or the project, please contact:

Olivier Ponti Chairman of ECM Research and Statistics Working Group Amsterdam Toerisme & Congres Bureau o.ponti@atcb.nl

André Moura (Author of this report) Turismo de Lisboa – Visitors and Convention Bureau amoura@visitlisboa.com