Amadeus recently sponsored a research study evaluating the profile of the global travel industry in 2020. The report, titled The Travel Gold Rush 2020, prepared by Oxford Economics, arrived at the conclusions that the greatest trends would be a “dramatic realignment” of travel spend with Asia-Pacific visitor arrivals accounting for 22% of global traffic and Asia-Pacific residents representing 32% of global travel spend in 2020.
photo credit: ToOliver2Not much has changed in the 160 years since the California Gold Rush. The winners will still need to get there first, and having some good luck wouldn't hurt either.
While these statistics are accurate, upon closer examination of the figures, a number of more subtle changes are forecast to occur – many that may be surprising and unexpected for individuals that may have seen the accompanying infographic that depicted comparatively large golden piles of coins and large pink rays of growth emanating from the Asia-Pacific region.
The Asia-Pacific growth projected is indeed impressive, yet the visual impact of the graphics overshadow the digits indicating the percentage share of overnight foreign visitor arrivals, resident trips abroad, and the related travel spend associated with those visitors and residents respectively.
What may be difficult to discern from briefly glancing at the infographic is that Europe will continue to exhibit a dominating share of the 2020 global travel market, with more than half of resident trips abroad originating from Europe and 40% of the foreign visitor spend transacting in Europe.
Taking a closer look at the Travel Gold Rush 2020 Infographic, the great news is that global travel spend is projected to double between 2010 and 2020, but the design does not illustrate the doubling of the travel pie.
A beautiful Infographic does not always tell the full story. In this case, it is difficult to see that Europe will produce 400 million more outbound travelers and receive nearly double the inbound visitors relative to the Asia-Pacific region in 2020.
The study segments its travel projections by three dimensions:
- Direction (Inbound or Outbound)
- Region (Asia-Pacific, Europe, North America, Latin American, Middle East and Other)
- Timeframe (1995, 2000, 2005, 2010 and 2020)
This discussion will focus solely on the 2010 and 2020 figures, with the objective of highlighting trends impacting foreign visitor arrivals and resident trips abroad, plus how the inbound and outbound traffic balances out to identify any big winners and losers. continue reading →
