Travel and Tourism Future Trends

The travel and tourism industry is vulnerable to the state of the economy - as the economy recovers and people have more money to spend on holidays the industry is predicted to grow again.

Business travel too has suffered with those needing to travel during the recession seeking out cheaper deals and budget airline routes.

Jobs in travel and tourism are expected to have modest growth of about 60 thousand jobs by 2017 as the UK comes out of the recession.

The larger budget airlines continue to expand and develop routes outside Europe - although some have not managed to survive the recession. For example the Scottish Budget airline group' FlyGlobespan' , the 'XL Leisure group' airline and 'Sky Europe' were all smaller airlines that have not survived the loss of income from lower passenger numbers.

Large travel conglomerations, such as the international UK based TUI group, are set to continue to dominate the industry - as they can take advantage of significant changes in the travel and tourist markets that the smaller groups may not be able to do so.  For example air transport and tourism is forecast to grow substantially as a result of strong demand from the Asian market but companies would need a foothold in Asia to benefit from this.

The UK is limited in the level of future growth it will be able to achieve in air travel as airports reach their full capacity. There are plans to expand some airports and discussions about for example bringing Coventry airport back into operation if it can get planning permission to develop. It is argued that if UK airports increase capacity, air transport will continue to grow but there are also environmental pressure groups who argue that air capacity should not increase.

Online booking and automated check in has affected the number of administration and airport services staff and this trend is likely to continue. 

Travel agency retail outlets are set to continue the trend of becoming fewer in number but bigger. TIU have recently opened a new 'walk-in holiday experience' in Coventry - a holiday superstore where staff offer more individual specialist advice and access to multi-media information for example being able to watch a DVD about a cruise. Specialist staff will be able to give advice about and book weddings and honeymoons for example. TIU plan to open more of these outlets across the UK.

LINK http://www.wowbc.co.uk/showcontent.php?id=190