|
|
 |
|
Viewing report
|
|
|
|
European Tourist Attractions Market Assessment 2009
Key Note Publications Ltd, Jan 2010, Pages: 112
Like bees buzzing around a hive, tourists come to visit Europe's main attractions in vast droves. 'Honeypots' have often developed around specific attractions, providing knock-on benefits for the locality. Conversely, visitors sometimes arrive in city centres simply because that is where their transport has taken them there and end up paying to enter attractions without having planned to do so.
An example of the former cited in this Market Assessment report is the Basilica of Sacré Coeur, which is perched on a hill overlooking Paris. The basilica itself is spectacular but its appeal is interwoven with the chance for tourists to wander along to the famous Place du Tertre with its cafés and pavement artists, itself within a short distance of the famous Moulin Rouge theatre.
Thus Sacré Coeur is the centre of a honeypot area within a city that is itself Europe's major attraction, featuring historic icons such as the Eiffel Tower and the Louvre Museum and also hosting — less than an hour from the city — Europe's largest commercial attraction, Disneyland Resort Paris.
Given the local links between these attractions, it is difficult to draw up a league table of European attractions, but the Paris region is generally acknowledged to be the market leader (globally and within Europe). Other clusters of major international attractions producing notable honeypots are London, Rome and Venice, with a dozen other European cities vying for top-ten rankings, from Madrid in the West to Istanbul in the East.
Attractions can broadly be divided into two groups: historic and modern. Historic appeal often springs from a whole area, producing honeypots such as the old town centres of Barcelona (Barri Gotic), Dublin (Temple Bar) and Krakow. These town centres are often attractive in themselves, particularly if they have been left unmodernised but pedestrianised, while others are locations of famous buildings (e.g. Medieval cathedrals and castles, or national museums and art galleries).
Classification is difficult because many attractions have unique characters, examples including the 'floating city' of Venice, the Vatican in Rome, the Acropolis in Athens and Germany's spectacular Neuschwanstein castle (the model for Disney's Sleeping Beauty castle). In contrast to these locally rooted attractions are Europe's great museums, such as the British Museum and the Hermitage in St Petersburg, which have gathered together art and artefacts from many countries.
On the 'modern' side of the business are attractions such as hi-tech, educational museums, new public buildings and modern art galleries, but the great volume of tourism is generated by theme parks, which continue to expand. Typically, major theme parks have added hotels to their sites to turn them into tourist resorts, the major example being Europe's outstanding park, Disneyland Resort Paris (originally known as Euro Disney).
With more than 15 million visitors a year, Disneyland has four times the number of admissions of the largest 'indigenous' parks. Nevertheless, these are highly significant for domestic tourism, leading examples including Phantasialand (Germany), PortAventura (Spain) and Alton Towers (the UK). Most parks are independent and local, but several international groups have emerged in the 2000s, led by Merlin Entertainments (UK based), Compagnie des Alpes (France) and Parques Reunidos (Spain).
Official figures from the EU show declines in tourism for most European countries in 2008 and 2009, as would be expected in a global recession. However, the silver lining on the cloud is domestic tourism, since consumers are more likely than usual to stay at home for holidays, instead of going abroad, and might, therefore, spend more time visiting local attractions.
The market has broadened out as more countries have acceded to the EU, their populations taking part in European life more fully. There are now 27 countries in the EU, the majority of which also share, or wish eventually to share, the same currency.
This integration brings Eastern European visitors to the honeypots of Western Europe but, at the same time, it has encouraged outbound tourism by Western Europeans to Eastern Europe. Of key importance in this activity has been the growth of low-cost airlines such as easyJet and Air Berlin, which fly between smaller towns and cities than the flag-carrier airlines, opening up the potential for new destinations.
Meanwhile, an even more significant future trend for Europe's tourism will be the arrival of more visitors from the rapidly industrialising Brazil, Russia, India and China (known as the BRIC countries). These visitors will bring fresh demand for Europe's historic sites.
Product samples
A sample for this product is available. Please Login/Register to download this sample.
Customers who bought this item also bought
European Tourist Attractions Market Assessment 2007
European Tourist Attractions Market Assessment 2005
Travel and Tourism in Brazil, Key Trends and Opportunities to 2015
Travel and Tourism in Russia, Key Trends and Opportunities to 2015
Speciality Tourism - Global Outlook
Travel and Leisure - Global Outlook
Travel and Tourism in France, Key Trends and Opportunities to 2016
Travel and Tourism in India, Key Trends and Opportunities to 2015
Travel and Tourism in China, Key Trends and Opportunities to 2015
Travel and Tourism in the Philippines, Key Trends and Opportunities to 2016: Government Committed to Increased Investment and Regulatory Change to Promote Tourism Growth
|
|
|
|
