About the market…

"After two difficult years, recovery of the European leisure travel business commenced for the most part in 2004. This should continue into 2005, supported by accelerating growth in consumer spending, especially in Germany and Italy, although not in the UK."

"The distribution of travel services via the Internet is growing rapidly, but this does not necessarily favour third-party websites due to increasing competition from the service providers themselves (airlines, hotel companies and tour operators), which control the supply chain and encourage their clients to book directly."

"Low-cost air carriers have made significant inroads into the commodity beach tourism business of tour operators, particularly in Spain, and are boosting demand for city breaks; but they do not represent, for the most part, a competitive factor for medium- and long-haul tours."

"Well-managed niche operators are growing faster and enjoying higher margins than mainstream tour operators; adventure tours and cruising are two of the strongest speciality growth segments."

About Mintel’s research…

Combining the latest tourism data from the most authoritative sources and Mintel’s own unique, independent analysis, European Leisure Travel Industry report provides a level of market-explanation that can help create focused marketing and shape effective tourism policy at the highest level.

The European Leisure Travel Industry - brand new published research, offering major insight into:

Key issues and future trends affecting the industry, such as demographic developments, changes in consumer demand and changes in product development and distribution channels

Mergers and acquisitions happening amongst the major players

The leading European and national players shaping the industry

Impact of measures to protect the environment on the European Travel Industry

European legislation impact on the leisure travel industry

Intriguing findings include…

In 2002, there were an estimated 101 million international departures from Germany, accounting for 31% of the entire European outbound market

Although high street travel agents still dominate as far as distribution is concerned, some 30% of trips were at least partially booked online

Recently, there has been a sharp upturn in travel to long-haul destinations, which had declined by 9% from January through August 2003, but bounced back by 12% during the first eight months of 2004.