The year for Europe started off with a 8.3% decline in January, going even below a 10% decline in February, March and May. In July however passenger numbers started to adjust to a -4.3% variance, and a -3.9% difference in August.

The larger airports have shown signs of recovery of air travel in Europe. London, Frankfurt and Madrid are less than 3% below last year number of passengers. And Zurich is even up 3.8%. Paris, Amsterdam, and Rome are around 5% behind on last year. Barcelona and Dublin still trail behind with a 7.7% and 14.3% decline in passengers.

If this trend is to continue in September and October is to be seen, as these months generally include more corporate travel then July and August. But hotels can draw some conclusion from these trends and adjust their revenue management, sales and marketing strategies.

Advertising spending could be partially re-allocated on feeder markets that show stronger signs. Corporate accounts should be contacted to see if they have been able to adjust their travel budget and foresee a slight increase in production. The business will not come to you automatically. We will have to fight to get more than our fare share of the pie than our competition.

We will keep you posted as we are finding more data out there to tell us where the market and economy is going.

Cheers,

Patrick Landman - Xotels