The data from this ITA report only goes through September, but it’s an interesting look at what happened to travel by Americans in 2007. Europe is still by far the region getting the most overseas visitors–as many as all of the world except Asia combined.
No wonder you see some European destination on every other cover of a glossy travel magazine. Give the people what they want. You can sell a lot of newsstand copies in airports by featuring the continent where 10.4 million people were headed in just the first nine months of the year.
Looking at the year-over-year numbers though, there are some interesting trends. Travel to the Caribbean is way down. Too boring or too expensive? Travel to Europe was up 2 percent, but in a gangbuster year for travel that’s not very much. Maybe people are getting the message that there are much better values out there. Except for Oceania (which is quite a hike for vacation-starved workaholics), other regions were up 7 percent or more, including a whopping 14.5 percent increase for the Middle East. (Maybe it was all those gushing Dubai stories?)
This coming year’s changes will be even more dramatic I think. Most experts are expecting European travel to actually decline this year and for travel to Latin America to rise more than 10 percent. The economy is skittish though and airfare hikes are getting daunting, so I wouldn’t be surprised to see people decide to stay closer to home instead. If you do head out and you’re earning money in U.S. dollars, I have two words of advice for you: habla espanol.
See the full 2007 report.
没有评论:
发表评论