Archive:Tourism and sustainable development
This Statistics Explained article is outdated and has been archived - for recent articles on tourism see here.
- Data from October 2007. Most recent data: Further Eurostat information, Main tables and Database.
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This article examines some recent changes in tourist behaviour and holiday preferences in the European Union (EU) that can have an impact on the sustainability of tourism. Tourism is vital for many countries as it creates value added and employment. The question is whether or not the recent growth in tourism is compatible with sustainable development?
Main statistical findings
Highlights
- In 1998-2005, the number of short holidays (i.e. those involving one to three nights away) has grown by 47 %, compared to 31 % for all holidays (see Table 1). In 2005, one in two holidays were short trips.
- Over the same period, the number of long holidays (i.e. those of four nights or more) made by plane grew by 33 %. In 2005, air travel was used for one in four long holiday trips.
- Potential pressure from tourism goes together with employment possibilities: regions with high tourism intensity tend to have lower unemployment rates.
Long trips
Holidaymakers increasingly prefer holidays abroad to domestic trips
The pressure tourism places on the environment (e.g. in terms of polluting emissions) is related to the travelling distance to the holiday destination. Therefore, it is interesting to see whether European tourists have changed their behaviour and their preference for domestic trips rather than those abroad, or for trips within Europe as compared to trips to other continents.
During 1998-2005, Graph 1 shows that, on aggregate, the number of trips Europeans made to other Member States (or outbound holiday trips) of four nights or more has increased by 23 % compared to 18 % for domestic holiday trips.[1]
Table 2 shows the share of outbound trips in the total number of holidays of four nights or more taken during 1997-2006. For many countries, an increasing preference for outbound trips, as compared to domestic ones, can be seen, with the fastest growth in the market share of holidays abroad being taken by Estonians and Greeks.
The first column in Table 2 shows that, overall, more than two out of five holidays are spent outside the holidaymaker's own country. This preference for outbound holidays, as compared to holidays in the home country, varies considerably from one Member State to another. The differences can be partly linked to geographical location; for instance, in many Mediterranean countries, less than one in five of their citizens' trips are to other countries, most prefer domestic holidays.
In the context of sustainability and the possible effects of tourism on the environment, trips outside Europe may have a stronger environmental impact than domestic ones. On the one hand, this is because long-haul flights often become indispensable for reaching the chosen destination. On the other hand, for many countries, the arrival of European tourists is very important for their economy and the development of their country.
Table 3 shows that, among the (long) trips made to a destination abroad, only a few holidays are spent in Africa, Asia, America or Oceania. For most countries, the share of non-European holidays is less than 20 %. Although the picture is incomplete due to missing data for some Member States, this share seems to have stayed relatively stable over the past decade.
Short holidays
Fastest growing segment of the tourism market
Over recent years, the number of holidays taken has increased (see Table 1 and Graph 2). This increase is much greater for short than long trips. Indeed, while the number of trips (regardless of the length of stay) increased by about 31 % between 1998 and 2005, the number of short trips (one to three overnight stays) has increased by 47 %.
As a consequence, the share of short trips in the total number of holiday trips has increased from 44 % to 50 %. This total is made up of the individual results of 11 Member States which show that this share varies widely from one country to another and from one year to another (see Table 4).
As well as looking at the changes in the share of short holidays, it is equally important to look at the behavioural changes regarding their destination. Europeans spend more than nine out of 10 short holidays within their own country, but since short trips abroad can affect the environment more, the changes in this smaller segment of the market was also investigated. Based on estimates for 11 Member States (see above), the percentage increase in domestic short trips is only a little more than percentage increase in short trips abroad, rising by 47 % and 42 % respectively. Within the total number of holidays, the share of short trips abroad, increased from 4.1 % in 1998 to 4.4 % in 2005.
In Table 5, it can be seen that the growth in the importance of short trips abroad is particularly high in Ireland and the UK, two Member States whose citizens may be making more use of better or cheaper connections to other countries.
Long holiday trips by airplane
In less than a decade, long trips by plane have grown 33 %
Graph 3 shows the relative share of the transport modes as the principal means of transport used for long holiday trips (i.e. trips of at least four nights). When comparing 1998 with 2005, their relative shares have remained almost stable, apart from air travel and private and hired vehicles. For the 13 Member States where data was available for both reference years, private and hired vehicles (mostly cars) are the means of transport for almost six out of 10 holiday trips of four nights or more, although a decrease in their share by 2.7 percentage points can be seen. On aggregate, the use of trains as the principal means of transport for holidays remained more or less stable within this group of 13 Member States, at a level of slightly less than 8 %.
Air travel has witnessed the largest growth. In 1998, travelling to the holiday destination by plane represented 22.5 % of all long holiday trips. By 2005, this share had increased to over 25.1 % for the same group of Member States for which data was available.
Access to air transport can be seen as a driving force for tourism, in the sense that it gives tourists the opportunity to cover large distances rapidly. This allows them to visit other continents and to come into contact with different cultures all over the world. However, air travel can also put pressure on the environment, as this transport mode is often considered to be less environmentally friendly than, for instance, trains.
Table 6 shows that the importance of air travel for holiday trips differs widely across the EU, ranging from 3 % in Romania and 5 % in Bulgaria to more than 70 % in Ireland. In terms of growth, the largest increases over the last few years are found in some of those Member States that joined the EU in 2004, especially the Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, where the percentage of holiday trips by plane has doubled between 2003/4 and 2006.
For the group of 13 Member States for which data is available over the period 1998-2005, Graph 4 shows that the number of holiday trips by plane has increased by more than 33 % (compared to 20 % for the total number of holiday trips). Considering that this group consists of the former EU-15 Member States and that air travel is growing relatively fast in the new Member States, this growth will be even higher for the EU-27 as a whole.
Unemployment rates and tourism intensity
Regions with a higher tourism intensity tend to have lower unemployment rates.
Tourists visiting a country are often concentrated in a small number of places. The presence of tourists can have an impact on the quality of life of the local population in those areas or regions, especially during certain peak periods of the year. On the other hand, the inflow of tourists can be an important driving force for a region's economy, including its labour market.
This section takes a look at the regions with the highest intensity of tourists, i.e. those with the highest number of tourist bed places, or tourist nights, in comparison with a region's population. Table 7 shows the regions having the highest number of tourist nights, compared to their population. These regions have a tourism intensity of 20 or more tourist nights per inhabitant. It should be kept in mind that this figure is an average over the year. Indeed, the number of tourist nights per inhabitant will be much higher in the peak seasons, especially in regions where the tourist season only lasts for three or four months.
Although the presence of a significant tourism sector will not be the only explanation, most of these regions have relatively low unemployment rates. With the exception of the Canary Islands, all of them have unemployment rates which are much lower than the average in their respective Member States. When looking at the 30 large regions (NUTS 2 level) with the highest tourism intensity (in terms of tourist nights), only six have an unemployment rate exceeding the national rate.
As mentioned above, tourism is often a very local phenomenon, hence the importance of detailed study of the regional tourism level and its effects. While the previous paragraph looked at relatively large regions that can have a very different tourism intensity within their own sub-regions, Table 8 takes a look at tourism intensity at a more detailed level within smaller regions (NUTS 3 level). Since the number of nights spent is not available at this level, the tourism intensity indicator used here refers to the number of bed places in tourist accommodation in comparison to a region's population. In the table, regions with more than 400 tourist bed places per inhabitant are shown. Again, it can be seen that in most of these regions, the unemployment rate is lower than the national figure. The two regions with significantly higher rates than the national unemployment figure are special cases: Corse-du-Sud scores better than average for the island of Corsica (but not in comparison to France as a whole), while Rügen is part of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, the state with the highest unemployment rate in Germany.
Data sources and availability
Classifications
Most data in this publication were taken from Eurostat's tourism statistics database. The data are sent to Eurostat by the Member States under Council Directive 95/57/EC of 23 November 1995 on the collection of statistical information in the field of tourism.
For Graphs 1 to 4 and Tables 1 to 6, the scope of the data is limited to people aged 15 and over.
Representativeness of aggregates
The 11 Member States making up the data in Table 1 and Graph 2 represent 71 % of the EU population while their citizens make 79 % of all the holiday trips made by EU citizens. For the 14 Member States shown in Graph 1 and Table 2, the representation is 77 % and 85 %, respectively. For the 13 Member States referred to in Table 6 and Graphs 3 and 4, this is 76 % and 84 %, respectively.
Context
In recent years, the tourism sector has been a fast growing economic activity in many countries. Tourism creates value added and employment in the receiving countries and can contribute to a better knowledge or image of a country. However, the question being asked more and more frequently about tourism is whether or not it is developing in a sustainable way. Travelling tourists can put pressure on the environment, while at their destination, their presence can put pressure on local communities and their ability to maintain their quality of life and safeguard their cultural and historical heritage.
Further Eurostat information
Publications
- Are recent evolutions in tourism compatible with sustainable development? - Statistics in focus 1/2008 (available in English, French and German)
- Other publications on tourism statistics
Main tables
- Hotels and similar establishments (tin00039)
- Other collective accommodation establishments (tin00040)
- Bed places in hotels and similar establishments (tin00041)
- Bed places in other collective accommodation establishments (tin00042)
- Arrivals in hotels and similar establishments (tin00047)
- Arrivals in other collective accommodation establishments (tin00048)
- Nights spent in hotels and similar establishments (tin00043)
- Nights spent in other collective accommodation establishments (tin00044)
- Tourists (tin00045)
- Trips (tin00046)
Database
- Tourism (tour), see:
- Capacity of collective tourist accommodation : establishments, bedrooms and bedplaces (tour_cap)
- Occupancy in collective accommodation establishments : domestic and inbound tourism (tour_occ)
- Tourism demand : domestic and outbound tourism (excluding day-trips) (tour_dem)
- Employment in the tourism sector (Source: Labour Force Survey 'LFS') (tour_lfs)
Dedicated section
Methodology/Metadata
- Tourism, see:
- Methodology:
- Sustainable development for tourism
- Methodological work on measuring the sustainable development of tourism :
- Part 1: Technical report
- Part 2: Manual on sustainable development indicators of tourism
Other information
- With 2012 as reference year:
- Regulation (EU) No 692/2011 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 6 July 2011 concerning European statistics on tourism and repealing Council Directive 95/57/EC.
- Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) No 1051/2011 of 20 October 2011 implementing Regulation (EU) No 692/2011 of the European Parliament and of the Council concerning European statistics on tourism, as regards the structure of the quality reports and the transmission of the data.
- Previous legal acts (concerning reference periods before 2012):
- Commission Decision 1999/35/CE of 9 December 1998 on the procedures for implementing Council Directive 95/57/EC on the collection of statistical information in the field of tourism.
- Commission Decision 2004/883/CE of 10 December 2004 adjusting the Annex to Council Directive 95/57/EC on the collection of statistical information in the field of tourism as regards country lists.
- Directive 95/57/EC of 23 November 1995 on the collection of statistical information in the field of tourism.
External links
- Agenda for a sustainable and competitive European tourism (Communication from the European Commission, October 2007)
- European Commission - Enterprise and Industry - Supporting European tourism
See also
- Archive:Tourism employment
- Tourism statistics
- Tourism statistics at regional level
- Tourism statistics
Notes
- ↑ Data based on 14 Member States.