If nothing else, 2019 gave the European travel industry plenty of opportunities to demonstrate its resilience: The sudden collapse of one of the region's biggest travel brands, the looming exit of the United Kingdom from the European Union and myriad challenges in the airline segment all threatened to derail growth.
Our sister brand Phocuswright recently published its annual flagship report on the Europe online travel market, presenting findings on the European leisure and unmanaged business travel markets, with sizing and projections from 2017 to 2023.
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Additional coverage in Phocuswright's Europe Online Travel Overview 2019 includes analysis of key travel segments and players, distribution dynamics, market challenges and more.
Despite these and other formidable issues, Europe's travel market grew 2% in 2019 to €296 billion. Though the fallout from these challenges will no doubt extend into 2020 and beyond, travel continues to be a key element of the European lifestyle, and the continent remains an attractive destination for travelers everywhere.
Hence, the overall market is still projected to climb over the next several years; annual gains of roughly 2% are projected through 2023, when the total market will reach €324 billion.
“These gains, however, are not reflected equally across all distribution channels. Offline bookings continue to decline as European consumers seek out online platforms both to plan and purchase their leisure trips,” says David Juman, senior director of editorial and research at Phocuswright.
“Led by Europe's two largest markets - the U.K. and Germany - online bookings were projected to climb 6% in 2019, approximately three times the rate of overall market growth. For the first time, Phocuswright research found more than half of all European travel bookings were made online. Online growth of 4 to 5% is projected for the next several years, with most gains attributed to mobile platforms.”
The full report, which is available for free to Open Access subscribers (learn about how to become one here), also includes analysis of mobile bookings, market share and trends in seven different markets, supplier distribution and OTAs in the region.