Turning away from Turkey and Egypt for safety reasons, millions of tourists have provided EU countries with record attendance
Moreover, as Deutsche Welle notes, both foreign and domestic: this year especially many Italians decided not to go anywhere and spend their summer vacation in their home country. According to Federalberghi estimates, there will be 33.3 million such vacationers – 9.5 percent more than a year ago.
In addition, the number of guests from Germany, which constitute by far the main category of foreign tourists, will increase noticeably. According to forecasts, it will exceed 11 million people by the end of the year, and one reason for this is that, due to fear of terrorist attacks, many Germans refuse to fly and choose places for vacation that are conveniently accessible by car. For example, numerous Italian seaside, lake, or mountain resorts.
However, this tourist year and especially the summer season will be record-breaking not only in Italy. The biggest beneficiary of the obvious reorientation of tourist flows from the turbulent Eastern Mediterranean (Turkey, Egypt) and North Africa (Tunisia) to Western Europe is another large EU country – Spain. In the first half of the year, another record was set here: in the first six months of 2016, the country was visited by 32.8 million foreign guests, which is 11.7 percent more than in the same period last year. Considering that the most productive months – July and August – fall in the second half of the year, it can be assumed that ultimately the Spanish tourism industry will beat last year's record, when the country was visited by 68 million foreigners.
On the Spanish market, the British lead, their number increased in the first half of the year by 16.5 percent – to 7.95 million guests. Almost 5 million vacationers came from Germany (an increase of 6.7 percent). The third place among foreign tourists was taken by the French, of whom there were almost 4.6 million. In addition, statistics recorded a significant increase in Americans and an unprecedentedly large number of guests from Asia, Africa, and Latin America, which is largely explained by the relatively low euro exchange rate, increasing the attractiveness of trips to the eurozone from other continents.
Greece is also heading for another record, where the number of foreign guests after last year's record 26 million could increase to 27 million. And yet last autumn and winter, bookings for the current summer season slowed sharply: the refugee crisis, with tens of thousands arriving on the Greek islands in the Aegean Sea, took its toll. But by summer, demand for holidays in Greece returned to its previous level and partially exceeded it. Only on the islands of Kos and Samos, where there were especially many refugees at some point, tourist flows have not yet fully recovered.
For Greeks, German and British tourists are traditionally especially important, and the flow of American, Chinese, and Indian guests is currently growing at the fastest pace. After a sharp decline in 2015, the number of tourists from Russia is increasing again, particularly those traveling on last-minute deals. According to various estimates, the number of Russians could grow this year by 50-60 percent and reach about 1 million.
Bulgaria is also experiencing a tourism boom, with the first half of the year being the best in terms of foreign tourists in the last ten years. In June alone, 62 percent more holidaymakers came from Germany than a year ago. Portugal also clearly benefited from the reorientation of tourist flows towards reliable EU countries. In the first half of the year, German tourists, for example, booked 17 percent more trips to this country than a year earlier.
The high activity of German vacationers in outbound destinations did not, however, hinder Germany's domestic tourism, which has been experiencing a boom for six consecutive years. It is quite possible that by the end of 2016, a seventh record will be set in the number of overnight stays in German hotels and guesthouses – the Federal Statistical Office of Germany counts exactly this indicator, though without distinguishing between tourists and business travelers. However, hotels and restaurants do not care whether guests spend their own money or travel expenses.
In the first half of the year, the number of overnight stays in German hotels increased by 3 percent to 199.2 million, with the absolute majority – 163.7 million overnight stays – provided by German residents themselves. So a new record is quite possible, although the series of terrorist attacks in German cities in July could lead to a reduction in the flow of foreign guests in the second half of the year, especially from the USA and Asia, where such incidents usually elicit a more nervous reaction than in neighboring European countries.
France has fully experienced this: in the first half of the year, the number of overnight stays by foreign guests in French hotels decreased by 10 percent, despite the influx of fans during the European Football Championship. The terrorist attacks in Paris at the end of 2015 mainly deterred tourists from the USA, Asia, and the Persian Gulf countries. In July, the negative trend continued, especially after the attack in Nice. The 'capital of the Côte d'Azur' ranks second after Paris in the list of the most visited tourist cities in France.
To a certain extent, Italy has benefited from all this. The head of Federalberghi, Bernabo Bocca, points in particular to double-digit growth in the number of Asian tourists. There are again more guests from Arab countries and Russia. Overall, the number of wealthy foreign guests has noticeably increased, emphasizes the representative of Italian hoteliers. According to him, those who previously vacationed on the Côte d'Azur now prefer Versilia and Liguria or the islands of Sardinia and Capri. Such a large number of foreign yachts has not been seen there for a long time.