engleski

Internet. http:// www.etc-corporate.org/modules.php?name=Content&pa=showpage&pid=100

In Europe, the European Travel Commission (ETC) is one of the leading international tourism organisations. It was established in 1948 to promote Europe to overseas markets (USA, Canada, Australia, Japan, Latin America etc.). Currently, the ETC members consist of 33 national tourism organisations in Europe. Although the ETC web-site (http://www.etc-corporate.org) was already presented in the journal Tourism (Vol.49, number 4), the aim of this paper is to outline the research activities of the ETC, as one of the ETC tasks is to regularly produce market intelligence data and carry out market research. The main research results and trends are, from 1998, available at its web-site. For the tourism industry, regardless whether it is on supply or demand side, one of the most important information is relating to the long-term trends in European tourism. In 2001, the ETC has produced the report titled "Megatrends of Tourism in Europe to the year 2005 and beyond", that was available, free of charge, on its web-site. At the beginning of this year, together with experts from the European Travel and Tourism Action Group, the ETC has updated this report, now titled "Tourism Trends for Europe" and made it available at the web address: (http://www.etc-corporate.org/modules.php?name=Content&pa=showpage&pid=100). The main trends identified in this report will be underlined in the remainder of this paper. The report identifies several aspects of contemporary society where changes may have an effect on tourism activity. These relate to sociodemographic and lifestyle changes, an increase in educational level, changes in amount of disposable leisure time, greater concern for health, more experience travellers, higher reliance on information technology in everyday life, changes in transportation, greater environmental consciousness, as well as greater concern for safety and security. In an atmosphere of the recent bomb attack on 11 March 2004 in Madrid that killed more than 200 and injured more than 1.6 thousand people, it is appropriate to, firstly, discuss concern expressed by the ETC experts regarding the safety and security in tourism. It is widely acknowledged that tourists are particularly sensitive to terrorist attacks, wars, civil unrest and other forms of violence and pollution that have all become part of daily routine. Tourists, in principle, avoid travelling to unsafe and polluted destinations. Thus, trend noticeable in tourism industry it that all involved in this sector have to pay much greater attention to environmental protection, safety and security during travel, as well as in tourism destinations. Consequently, ensuring these, would require heavier financial investments. Besides safety and security issues, another area demanding increased attention is the changed socio demographics, where products have to be adapted to suit special market segments emerging, partly, as the consequence of the socio-demographic shifts. Nowadays Europeans are older, better educated, earlier retired and usually single (not married, divorced or widowed persons). In tourism, this is expressed in increasing demand for single person products, for comfortable and easy transportation, for friendly smaller size establishments (i.e. authentic family hotels or tourist farms), for relaxation and entertainment programs in tourism destinations (i.e. designated to suit older persons, such as, golf course) etc. In marketing, more emphasis has to be put on comfort, environment and security aspects and less on age of tourists. Increasing availability of high-speed trains and low cost airline companies will fuel growing interest for short break trips. Those tourism destinations that have efficient transport links with leading generating markets, will achieve better results. Likewise, interest for cruising will increase, especially for not so expensive cruising trips. Another trend noticeable in tourism is mixing various products. The same person will once travel on a simple holiday trip and sleep in tent or bungalow, and the other time, take very expensive journey and sleep in high deluxe hotel. Furthermore, modern tourists are more than ever interested in culture, arts, history and wellness products. In summary, this ETC's report gives valuable information for the entire tourism industry in Europe, in their attempt to adapt product to suit emerging trends in demand, and thus, ultimately, ensure their long-term violability.

Internet; European Travel Commission

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