GLOBAL TRAVEL SET FOR A NEW ‘GLOBAL DECADE’

The global travel industry is poised for a period of sustained growth over the next decade – a ‘golden decade’– driven in part by China’s share of global outbound travel reaching as much as 20 percent by 2023, according to a new report on global travel trends.

The report, entitled “Shaping the Future of Travel” predicts an optimistic macro-economic outlook for global travel over the next 10 years, with the industry projected to outstrip global GDP by some 2 percent, growing 5.4 percent per annum. Moreover, global travel is now set to grow at a significantly faster rate than during the financial crisis, where growth was just 4.1 percent per annum.

Meanwhile, China is set to overtake the US this year to become the world’s largest outbound travel market; by contrast as recently as 2005 China’s growth stood at just 1 percent. China will also become the biggest domestic travel market by 2017, driven largely by rapidly increasing GDP, rising employment levels and higher consumer spending.

The report, written by Oxford Economics and sponsored by Amadeus, also concludes that other large emerging markets such as Russia, Brazil, India, Indonesia and Turkey will each also average more than 5 percent annual growth over the next 10 years. “Forecasts pre predict a new golden era for travel, wh which will be welcome news for many se segments of the industry that are only just b beginning to emerge from recession,” s said Holger Taubmann, SVP distribution, Amade Amadeus. “However, as the complexities in the busine business travel market clearly demonstrate, growth will be far from evenly distributed and there are likely to be both winners and losers.”

Visit amadeus.com to read the free, full 44-page report.