European operators lost over 1m customers in 2002
WTM Special: Tour operators in Europe lost over one million customers this year according to the European Tour Operators Association (ETOA).
ETOA has released a survey at WTM, which claims that ETOA members throughout Europe carried 5.6 million visitors in the year to October 2002, down one million from the previous year. The survey also found that customers spent less, resulting in a 28 percent, or €5 billion drop in revenue for the year.
ETOA executive director Tom Jenkins said: “It is possible that we are now witnessing a permanently unstable market. Events such as September 11 are random, and unpredictable, and wreck otherwise viable businesses”.
ETOA anticipated that the development of a war on Iraq would lead to a further drop in customers of 38 percent, effectively halving business over a two year period.
ETOA claim that operators could also suffer under proposed European Commission legislation to change the taxation of travel products. According to ETOA, the EU wants to remove the tax advantages enjoyed by Ireland, Denmark, the Netherlands and the UK. ETOA says that if the changes go through, many EU in-bound tour operators will have to base themselves outside the EU in order to survive. ETOA says that this would take €2 billion of business out of the EU.
Mr Jenkins said: “The proposals aim at a ‘one-size-fits-all’ solution, which ignores the realities of the important inbound tourist trade. Unlike much of the EU travel trade, which is handling business within the EU, the inbound sector has to compete in a global market. This is an intensely competitive industry.
“It is hardly surprising that the result of this taxation has been the near-complete removal of such inbound tour operators from the EU. Those who were based here have folded, emigrated offshore or moved to one of the countries that offer some relief against the impact of the tax”.
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