ForwardKeys research for Interface Tourism Group reveals a 5.6% decrease in the Spanish Outbound Tourism in 2012

 

 

In preparation for FITUR 2013, the main travel trade fair in the Spanish market, tourism marketing group Interface Tourism has published a snapshot of Spanish outbound tourism in 2012 using data provided by Forwardkeys, a data analysis consultancy specialising in travel and tourism. According to this data the Spanish outbound market contracted by 5.6% last year.

The special relevance of this study is that the ForwardKeys system analyses real data of flights booked on global reservation systems (GDS) anywhere in the world and it is able to compare historic or current data and even predict the future with “on the book” reservations yet to be fulfilled.

According to Chris Pomeroy, Director of the Madrid office of the Paris-based  Interface Tourism Group, “Spain is predominantly an incoming market and there are a number of sources of statistics and information about foreign visitors to the country but remarkably little information about how the Spaniards travel abroad. Despite the complicated situation in Spain, outbound travel is still an important and profitable sector but reliable and up-to-date data has become more important than ever for destinations and travel companies to react quickly with informed marketing decisions. At last, thanks to the ForwardKeys technology, we can have a clear picture of how the market is developing and be able to adjust our clients’ marketing strategies accordingly”.

The map produced by ForwardKeys summarizing the salient points of the study clearly illustrates the performance of the 26 destinations that received more than 50,000 Spanish visitors during 2012. These 26 destinations together account for 79.9% of all flights booked from Spain.

European destinations suffered the most and of the total number of seats not booked in 2012 compared to 2011, 85% were for flights to European destinations. This is not surprising as Europe accounts for 54% of all outbound flights booked from Spain. The biggest drops to Europe were in travel to the Czech Republic (-22.9%) and Italy (-21.2%).

Spanish bookings to Morocco increased by 19.1%. Although this increase is still slightly below the decrease caused by the Arab Spring, Morocco is recovering visitor numbers faster than any of its neighbours in the region and during 2013 it will recover it pre-crisis share of the Spanish market.

As far as long-haul travel is concerned, the destination suffering the largest decrease in Spanish visitors is Argentina (-21.2%) whilst Peru increased in the same period by 11%, despite the consumer crisis, proving that with a bold and well thought out marketing campaign it is still possible to get positive figures from the Spanish market.

The star destination globally for the Spanish outbound market in 2012 was undoubtedly Thailand with an increase of 31.5%. Unlike Morocco or Tunisia, Thailand has shown a continued growth despite social, political or natural problems in 2011 that did not affect the overall perception of the destination in the market.

For Olivier Jager, CEO of ForwardKeys: “In the current situation of the market, our overview, more than a snapshot, can be considered an x-ray of the market. Booking data provides marketing specialists like Interface Tourism in-depth real-time analysis of the real situation. Official border statistics are slow to reach decision makers and when they do, they only touch the surface and they can often confuse the diagnosis. By analysing bookings rather than trips made, we can see the first symptoms of a problem in time to make important decisions”

For further information about the ForwardKeys data analisis solutions: www.forwardkeys.com

Travel agency sales down 7.8%

According to provisional data released on Friday by the Spanish statistics institute INE  in the first 11 months of 2012 the total sales by Spanish travel agencies has decreased by 7.8% compared to the same period in 2011. This sadly translates directly into employment speak as a 4.3% drop in employment in the sector.

Sales by retail travel agencies dropped by 7.5% in October to make it 14 consecutive months of negative figures. Tour operators, meanwhile saw November sales drop by 12.4% compared to last year.

Interestingly, airline sales decreased in the same period (jan-nov 2012) by a less dramatic 1.7% indicating that the travel agencies and tour operators are simultaneously losing those that decide not to travel at all and those that decide to book direct and not through an agency.