European City Tourism Monitor VII – Growth in bednights is more likely to happen in 2010.

According to the results of the 7th European City Tourism Monitor, city tourism professionals participating in the survey expect bed nights in the 4th quarter of 2010 to  grow, compared to the same period in 2009. ‘Positive expectations’ outnumber ‘negative expectations’ by 65 percentage points, while last quarter the same number was 48. 

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International markets look to be more promising than domestic markets. The leisure segment seems to account for much of this optimism, but, compared to the previous survey, expectations for business segments also rose slightly. In terms of international source markets, experts continue to be most confident about growth in the German market.

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Confidence in how the British market will perform, which was looking weak in the 3rd quarter, seems to have been restored in expectations for the last quarter of 2010. Respondents from Central Europe continue to be the most confident.

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A decrease in hotel rates is less widely expected for the 4th quarter than was the case in the summer period.

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Considering total bed nights for the whole of 2010, on this occasion respondents revealed much more confidence in a good performance than in previous surveys. Only 13% of those polled are expecting either the maintenance of current levels or a decrease in this indicator when compared to 2009. It is also significant that 42% believe there will be growth of more than 5%, when this proportion only totalled 15% last quarter.

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André Moura
Department coordinator, Lisbon Visitor and Convention Bureau
Member of the R&S Knowledge Group

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