New trio of countries to become tourism superpowers
WTM Special Report: China, India and Russia have been indentified as the new powerhouses in global tourism.
The countries are seen as becoming major source markets in the future by the World Travel & Tourism Council.
They are forecast to challenge the supremacy of current tourism superpowers such as the US, Japan, Germany, France, the UK and Spain.
The trio of emerging giants of tourism were identified by WTTC chairman Vincent Wolfington during a debate at World Travel Market.
Marriott International Lodging president and CEO Ed Fuller described China as an “unbelievably big source market” while Lalit Suri, chairman and managing director of Indian chain Bharat Hotels, said there were 600 million Indians under the age of 25 who will be “going all out” to travel in the future.
Fuller said China, Russia and other new source markets will provide the global ravel industry with a new customer base and the demand will be catered for by new larger aircraft being developed by Boeing and Airbus.
“This new airlift will give people the capability to travel more,” he said, identifying growth in leisure travel as the segment that will drive industry growth.
Fuller forecast that consumers would be looking for more activity-based experiences in their leisure time and resorts needed to respond by becoming more all-inclusive destinations.
Report by Phil Davies
Phil Davies
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