Will/Can European governments influence tour operators
and consumers to travel to Greece?
With the closing of WTM 2011 we can look back upon a couple of
days filled with new contacts, meetings with old acquaintances and
interesting market views. One topic stood out, when talking to
companies operating in or to the Mediterranean, how will the
situation in Greece influence travel, more specifically, how
important is tourism to restore the economy and with that support
the European bailout scheme? Some actually fear that governments
will pressure tour operators to put more emphasizes on the Greece
holiday offerings, boosting sales and local economy, but will tour
operators play along that easily?
The North African region, suffering from revolutions in 2011, is
foreseen to recover partly in 2012, there is especially a large
interest from Russia in these markets, which will result in a
strong growth in the number of Russian tourists. Will Italian and
French travelers also return to their traditional destinations in
2012?