Current Trends in Tourism

Tourism industry is one of the most dynamic and fast developing sector which has a huge impact on economy. This sector is significantly effected by global economy therefore tourism and travelling also move downward in case of crisis in the financial circumstances. In this essay I would like to present some examples, how tourism has been effected by crisis in the main Arabic countries and Greece. Besides, it will be outined how airlines sector has been changed in the last five years.
In 2010, there was some critical point as disturbances and civil war in significant tourism destination such Egypt or Tunisia. These countries most considerable income comes from tourism but obviously lack of tourists can cause an economy crisis. Although these countries lost their visitors but other Eurasian countries (for instance Turkey) made profit because those tourist who prefer to visit that region choosen Turkish-Riviera which is safer than Arabic languague areas with similar conditions. However, Turkey made a profit by the the political crisis in Egypt.
Egypt’s neighbours – for example Libya and Israel – had loss too,since many tour operators had organised combined tours to these countries and that tours were cancelled, consequently the loss increased. By summer of 2012, the politics situation became stabled and some part of these regions got back their popularity especially the Red-sea coast and Sinai. Also, there are some difficulties in the Europien market. Between 2009-2012 Europe continued its struggle for surviving, mostly one of the main mediterranean destination, Greece.

The crisis has become deeper and painful. Tourism is incredibly important for Greece, for the main profit comes from tourism and catering consequently they can not loose this significant income. Due to crisis some advantages came up for the visitors. The economy situation has helped push down the value of the Euro, making to Greece relatively cheaper for Americans or other foreign visitors. In fact, some prices has been fallen such as hotel rooms and food due to crisis. As a result, number of the tourists is roughly the same.
According to Giorgos Mamalos press advisor of the Greek embassy said:” Greece is certainly going through a crisis, but this has no significant impact on security and tourism. ” Let us have a look on airlines. Airlines have an important impact on tourism and they have affect on each other. In the past few years some airlines have no choice to avoid to break down. Hungarian airlines (MALEV) was shuted down in this year after 60 years service. It was not a huge global airline but it kept a connection between Balkan and West-Europe and had flown over 33 countries.
Following their bankrupcy there is no more flight between these two region therefore tourism has strongly decreased. Also, many airline such as Kingfisher Airline, Delta Airline etc. exist, although they are suffering by financial problems, which has an effection for tourism industry. On the other hand, low-cost airlines such as Ryanair, take advantage on their competitors crisis and found new opportunities that generate strong competition on the aviation market. Notwithstanding, according to Bernd Hahn’s “A study on low cost carriers in Europe” essay the full-cost carriers do not loose to many clients because of low-cost airlines.
What is the reason why the low cost and high price airlines and travel agencies are not virtual competitors? I reckon, question is simple. Every customer has different needs. Those passangers that had previously travelled with traditional airlines and agencies and they had been satisfied with service, well, they will not change their habits – independently on prices. Those who can afford only lower budget but would like travelling and visiting other countries – these passengers will use low-cost airlines and cheap services.
It is not a simple „fare-competition” because both of them have a different level of service. Consequently these companies are not real rival. Yet, they have to keep an eye on each other because tourists financial circumstances, tourism and aviation market can change very quickly and they can win or lost customers. To sum up, in the past few years has been a global economy and political crisis which has affected on the tourism and airline industry. Importancy of low-cost airlines have been growing continuosly, which is an important trend.
It seems these industries have survived the crisises and some forecast shows that positive trend will be continuing in 2013, although the unstable economy situation always have a negative impact on the industry . Sources: What does the Greek economics mean for a visitor to Greece? (www. eturbonews. com )(David S. White) 2010 Restoring Egyptian Tourism from crisis to recovery (www. eturbonews. com) David Beirman 2011 Greece crisis has no impact on tourism, embassy in Rome, Giorgos Mamalos (www. ansamed. info) 2012 A study on low cost carriers in Europe, Bernd Hahn, Wuppertal Papers, No, 159, 2006