How has tourism changed in the last decade? Where is it heading?
As of 2010, the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) reports an almost even distribution of 53% of international arrivals in advanced economies and 47% in emerging economies. Overall, global international arrivals surpassed 1 billion for the first time in 2012. Tourism continues to grow worldwide, but how will different locations develop strategies to attract these travellers in the future? And, what issues will limit future travel and tourism?
Ladies First
As women worldwide gain new advancements in their political rights and social recognition, they’re experiencing new freedom in mobility. They’re choosing to spend more of their time exploring different regions of the globe and embarking on cultural journeys. In 2018, Lonely Planet claimed that around 67% of solo travellers are women. This increase has led tour operators that specifically feature travel experiences for women to report huge growth in the last decade.
Wild Women Expeditions, which specializes in outdoor adventures, claims it grew by 1,000% since 2010 and even doubled its profits in the last year. Another prominent tour operator, AdventureWomen, grew 42% just in the last year.
Popular travel publications like Travel + Leisure, Conde Nast Traveler, and AFAR are ramping up their coverage of women-led expeditions around the globe. They’re emphasizing the safest places for women to travel and the locations that have led the way in establishing gender equality.
Self-Care
According to the 2018 Global Wellness Tourism Economy report, wellness tourism is growing twice as fast as tourism overall with the possibility of becoming a $900+ billion market by 2022. While North America leads with $242 billion in wellness tourism revenue, Asia-Pacific countries have seen a 33% increase in wellness trips in the last two years.
Cities are witnessing a rise in urban wellness hotel brands, like the Equinox Hotels. But, wellness tourism has mostly only been accessible to wealthy travellers, so brands and destinations might begin to develop more health activities and options that are open to a range of budgets. From free yoga and meditation classes to family-friendly hiking and biking maps, wellness tourism is bound to grow in popularity.
Border Control
In 2017, the UNWTO reported that international tourism arrivals had hit 1.3 billion. While this statistic seems like exciting news for world tourism, a 2019 report by Edelman, the American public relations and marketing consultancy firm, cites a growing problem with under-tourism and over-tourism.
Many people are choosing to travel to destinations that have always taken the limelight like Barcelona, Venice, Paris, and Amsterdam. As such, these cities are straining to support the flocks of tourists, sparking new regulations and limitations. For example, in August of this year, Venice began to restrict the number of cruise ships entering its historic center with the aim to reroute at least one-third of cruise ships already booked for Venice towards new sites by 2020. In the coming years, people will have to reframe their worldviews and choose to travel to cultural heritage sites that have been historically overlooked.
Less Footprints, More Memories
In August 2019, young environmental advocate Greta Thunberg garnered media attention for her decision to sail across the Atlantic Ocean from the United Kingdom to the United States in a racing yacht equipped with solar panels and underwater turbines. Her trip served as a demonstration of her beliefs in the importance of reducing carbon emissions through methods of carbon-neutral travel. Her act of defiance arrives at a time when a 2018 report by the independent research institute, Rhodium Group, released estimates that showed that carbon dioxide emissions increased by 3.4% that year. The biggest culprit was the transportation sector: specifically trucking and air travel with their increased demand for diesel and jet fuel.
As travellers learn more about the impact of climate change, they turn to ecotourism to help them make sustainable choices in their journeys. In 2017, the nonprofit organization, Sustainable Travel International, noted that there were about 105.3 million U.S. travellers who prioritized vacations centred around environmental sustainability. Many of these people are interested in travelling to remote locations to learn first-hand about the areas and how to contribute to their conservation.
“Travel is ultimately a series of intentional disruptions” (Leslie Jamison, “The Big Leap,” AFAR).
What is the future of tourism?
As more people set off to travel the world, they’re experiencing new cultural awakenings and making more equitable and sustainable choices. Expect already popular destinations to become more exclusive and lesser-known locations to rise to the occasion of new opportunities.
