In
2016, European Cities Marketing has once again demonstrated the most dynamic
aspect of European tourism. Over the last 5 years (2012-2016), bednights in
European Cities Marketing Benchmarking Report's cities (+14.2%) have been still
increasing at a faster rate than of the 28 EU nations (+8.8%). Thus, confirming
once again that city tourism is growing against disturbances.
The
report is published yearly and is the result of a cooperation between European
Cities Marketing, the platform for convention, leisure and city marketing
professionals to exchange knowledge, best practice and widen their networks to
build new business, and MODUL University Vienna.
The
top 5 cities for 2016 looks the same as the previous year, besides Barcelona
taking back its spot in the top 5 from Madrid. Remarkable is also that London
was able to hold onto its spot as number one in bednights despite a negative
growth rate (-3.2%), the second highest negative growth rate behind Paris
(-8.2%), which also held onto its spot as number two in bednights.
The
city that has gone up the strongest is Barcelona (8.5%). with the highest
growth rate out of the top 15 cities, followed by Amsterdam (7.3%) which jumped
up two spots from the previous year.
Table 1. Top 15 European Cities - Total Bednights 2016
Based
on the latest forecast, European Cities Marketing expects a growth in total
bednights of 6.4% in European Cities for 2017. This means the growth curve is
expected to ascent at a faster pace, even more dynamic than the previous years.
Dieter
Hardt-Stremayr, European Cities Marketing President, says: "We saw another
exceptionally successful year for city tourism in Europe, despite major
challenges arising. The terrorist attacks in Europe, and particularly in Paris,
show the volatility, importance and resilience of tourism. Overseas markets
such as China or Japan are particularly sensitive towards perceived risk which
resulted in negative performance in 2016. However, since the last quarter of
2016 city tourism in Europe is back on track: visitor numbers are strongly and
steadily recovering for Paris as well as for source markets which were
decreasing for years, such as Russia. City tourism in Europe in 2016 was
"tossed by the waves but does not sink".
He
concludes that European cities remain the most attractive tourism destinations
for visitors from all over the world and showed resilience and courage against
terrorism.
Produced
by MODUL University Vienna, the European Cities Marketing Benchmarking Report
provides the #1 source of city tourism statistics in Europe. ECM reports twice
a year about the current state of the tourism industry. In March, the
organisation provides first preliminary results and trends about the previous
year, in June the ECM Benchmarking Report is presented containing detailed analyses
and benchmarks of the past 5 years, as well as the forecast for the current
year. For the 13th edition, European Cities Marketing (ECM) presented the ECM
Benchmarking Report 2017 during its International Conference in Dubrovnik. The
report not only covers statistics portraying tourism development for 126
European cities but also forms the basis for discussing major trends and
developments in Europe among the member cities. The 13th edition of the
European Cities Marketing (ECM) Benchmarking Report provides benchmarking
insight into bednights, bed capacities as well as city tourism vs. national
tourism analysis and a breakdown of tourist densities comparing city's
population vs. bednights in 2016.
