engleski

Consolidation Processes Influencing Structural Changes on the European Tourism Market

Concentration processes on the tourism markets have created powerful leisure travel concerns which can provide a very complex customer care, since they work right across the vale chain. An increasing number of small, independent tour operators and travel agencies have been swallowed up by these large organizations which have become the largest and the most powerful leisure travel concerns in the world. This situation puts the medium-sized and particularly the small, independent tourism companies at a disadvantage, because it limits their access to the channel of distribution, to the lease of charter seats, and they also have less favourable negotiation position when contracting accommodation capacities at tourism destinations. Since, as presented, the newly formed tourism leisure giants are owners or major shareholders of accommodation facilities in the main receiving tourism destinations in the world, they can easily control, or dictate the prices of these services, and put some other requests or imply some rules in their favour. It simply means that the competition created on tourism generating markets is moving on to the tourism receiving markets, too. However, the present analysis does not simply imply that MNCs and SMEs cannot successfully work together on the same market. Small company size can many times be an advantage since these companies may have a high degree of flexibility to quickly respond to changes of demand, and to increased necessity for innovation. If the small companies engage in niche marketing and tailor their products to the individual wishes of their clients, they can develop unique products and services which take into account indigenous development of their domestic destination. What will be the next move of multinational leisure travel concern? Since the region of East Asia and the Pacific is showing significant tourism generating potential it can be expected that European leisure travel giants will make an effort to further expand their business to these tourism generating markets.

tourism; consolidation processes; European tourism market

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