Global Travel Trends
For the first time since statistical data has been collected on international tourism, the year 2009 exhibited a decline in the number of outbound trips taken throughout the world - this global figure dropping by a total of -4%. The downturn can be primarily attributed to the global financial and economic crisis.

European and American overseas destinations were hit the hardest by this global decline; Europe by -6% and America by -5%. Recording a -2% decline, Asian destinations were somewhat less impacted. Meanwhile, African destinations managed to post a plus figure of 5%, although based on a comparatively lower travel volume.

European Travel Trends
The Europeans took a total of 395 million outbound trips in 2009 -6% fewer than in the previous year and accounting for 3.5 billion overnights, a -2% decline from the previous year. Travel expenditures for outbound trips dropped -13% in the year 2009 and amounted to 331 billion euro.

The European source market to record the far and away greatest decline in 2009 was Great Britain. All told, the British took 8 million outbound trips less than in the previous year. Outbound trips fell by 3 million in the German market as well, and by 2.6 million in the Russian market. Similarly, the Spaniards, Swedes and Dutch also went on considerably fewer outbound trips than in the previous year.

The “Tour“ segment was the segment most strongly affected by the decrease in outbound travel (-14%). “Countryside holidays” fell off by 6%. “CityBreaks” and Sun&Beach” holidays were the most stable segments, each recording a percentage drop of 3%.

German Travel Trends
The Germans took 301 million trips in 2009 (domestic and outbound combined), amounting to a total of 1.5 billion overnights. Compared to the year before, total travel volume fell by -1%, overnight accommodation volume fell by -3%, and travel expenditures by -5%.

Of the 301 million trips the Germans took in 2009, 228 million were domestic and 73 million were outbound. Compared to the previous year, this was a +1% increase in domestic travel, while outbound trips declined by -4%. Nevertheless, Germany fared better in terms of outbound trips when compared to the entire European market as a whole.

46% of the domestic and outbound German trips were holidays, an unchanged figure from the previous year. The volume of other private trips also remained unchanged. In contrast thereto, there was a 4% drop in German business trips; i.e. the decrease in the German market for 2009 can be wholly attributed to the business trip segment.

In 2009, the Germans went on a total of 136.9 million holiday trips. Of these, 86.6 million were domestic trips and 50.3 million were outbound. Compared to the year before, there was a +2% increase in domestic holidays, while outbound holidays decreased -4%. The domestic holiday market share thereby rose from 62% to 63%.

Bavaria was again the most popular domestic holiday destination for the Germans in 2009, recording a total of 17.5 million holiday trips. Lower Saxony came in a distant second (9.3 million domestic German holiday trips) followed by Baden-Wurttemberg in third place (8.3 million).

Spain and Austria share first place for leading German outbound holiday destinations of 2009, each recording a 16% share, followed by Italy (14%). These three countries have been the Germans’ undeniable outbound holiday destinations of choice for many years now.

The World / European Travel Monitor is an annual survey monitoring the outbound travel volume and structure in all Western and Eastern European countries as well as in all the important American and Asian markets. IPK International launched the World Travel Monitor in 1988 based on the European Travel Monitor – which today forms an integral part of the World Travel Monitor. Based on surveys representative of the population in 60 countries, more than 500,000 interviews are conducted every year. Besides holiday trips, business trips and other private trips are also included in the survey. Today the World Travel Monitor is the world’s largest tourism database to provide comparable data on European, American and Asian outbound travel volume and behavior.