Events in Ukraine will dampen European tourism
Growth of tourism within Europe is expected to slow this year due to recent political upheaval in Ukraine and Crimea.
Tourism within Europe grew faster than the world average in 2013, but that rate of growth is not expected to continue in 2014.
"For 2014 we expect the region to consolidate growth," said John Kester, acting director of the United Nations World Tourism Organisation Tourism Market Trends Programme.
"Most source markets show good prospects, but due to the recent events growth might soften from the Russian Federation, one of the fastest growing markets for many ETC member destinations recently".
He was speaking at the recent annual meeting of the Marketing Intelligence Group (MIG), which is part of the European Travel Commission.
During the meeting, Visit Flanders research manager Vincent Nijs was elected as the new chairman of MIG.
Emöke Halassy and Tünde Mester from Hungarian Tourism and Peter Nash from Tourism Ireland were elected as vice-chairpersons.
"Improving knowledge transfer, by which I mean the process that goes from eliciting information needs into research projects and actionable findings, is the key objective of my term," said Nijs.
Linsey McNeill
Editor Linsey McNeill has been writing about travel for more than three decades. Bylines include The Times, Telegraph, Observer, Guardian and Which? plus the South China Morning Post. She also shares insider tips on thetraveljournalist.co.uk
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