A study of popular holiday destinations for different countries and demographics
Drawing on a range of different sources, including national and international governmental data, this article will explore the different kinds of destinations that citizens from around the world tend to head to.
- holiday destinationsmuha… / Beach Photos / CC BY-NC-SA
The results are surprising – and tell you more about a nation’s people than you might suspect.
1) Italy and Spain are kind of equal, kind of
In a 2010 study by LaMondia, Snell and Bhat, European tourists see Spain and Italy as equally viable tourism destinations. Germans and Greeks have exactly no preference between the two countries, with Italy and Spain topping the holiday preference list.
Britain, on the other hand, doesn’t quite see the two as equal, preferring Spain to almost anywhere else. Italy was, shockingly, treated less preferentially to Germany, Greece and France.
Interestingly, the French appeared to prefer travel to Germany or Greece over Italy – even having a slight preference for visiting the UK over Italy. They were the only country who stated a preference for visiting the UK above any other European country.
2) Everyone prefers traveling by their own steam
The same study goes on to demonstrate that no matter your age or family situation, everyone seems to prefer voyaging in their ‘personal vehicle’. Both air travel and surface public transport (buses, trains and so on) fared weakly in the preference stakes, with the strongest distaste reserved by families with children older than 18 for air travel (one assumes, down to the expense) and for families with children younger than 18 for surface public transport (who wants to take their fresh-faced younglings on a long trip in a shared carriage?).
There were some intriguing demographics that buck this trend. The unemployed and retired stated a serious preference for holidaying via surface public transport, although they were quite keen on air travel, too. Of all the samples, the unemployed and retired were only one of two groups to prefer chauffeured travel to personal vehicular tourism. Those on the lowest 25 percent of household income also preferred to stick to planes and trains, at the expense of (personal) automobiles.
3) The Sun is more important than The Economy
In terms of picking travel destinations, there was a strong positive inclination towards Mediterranean countries (which also suggests that the majority of European holidaying happens during the summer, when these countries are in their prime). In stark contrast, nearly nobody included country GDP (Gross Domestic Product, a kind of useful indicator of general national wealth) as a factor in their decision.
4) People don’t buy much, but when they do it’s cultural
The survey responses concerning what people tend to purchase on holiday were slim, with very little definite indication that tourists purchased specific goods in excess of others. However, there was a slight preference for books, music and food – perhaps certain items unlikely to be available in travelers’ home countries. Clothes and crafts weren’t particularly desirable items, apparently – possibly due to the space constraints imposed by air and surface public transport services.
5) The big traveller giants are falling
Perhaps thanks to the global economic recession, three of Europe’s largest traveler communities – Germany, France and the UK – saw the percentage of citizens taking tourist trips drop dramatically between 2006 and 2011. According to a study by the European Commission, France and the UK saw about 3 percent more people staying at home for the holiday over five years. Germany was much more dramatic, with 2006’s economy-fuelled 80.7 percent of Germans who travelled abroad for more than four days that year tightening to 67.3 percent in 2011.
6) Developing countries are making the most of EU travel
By contrast, smaller countries such as Estonia, Lithuania and Romania are seeing more and more people booking breaks abroad. Only 22.7 percent of Estonians took a holiday abroad for longer than 4 days in 2006: by 2011, this was pushing 60 percent. Slovakia and Croatia also saw vast increases in the number of citizens taking trips abroad.
7) Almost everyone in Cyprus holidays, apparently
Cypriots are some of the most well-travelled peoples in the world, according to the same Eurostat study. A stunning 86.4percent of native residents take at least four days out of the country each year, apparently – a figure that has barely changed in five years. The study is not clear, though, as to whether or not this figure includes Cypriots moving between South Cyprus, which is part of the EU, and Northern Cyprus, which is not. In a space that’s only slightly bigger than Luxembourg, that’s a distinct possibility.
8) Luxembourg is probably too small
Luxembourgers (as I am reliably informed they are named) spend a lot of time outside their own country, which is perhaps unsurprising given that it’s only about 50 miles tall (and much less wide). Averaging things out, each Luxembourger spent 22 nights abroad per year. Perhaps most interestingly, this tells us that denizens of the Central European country spend around 343 nights of the year resident in a space not much larger than Greater London, and with far less to do.
9) Cruising is massive, and growing faster than any other kind of tourism
The humble cruise isn’t so humble any more. According to Juan Gabriel Brida of the Free University of Bolzano in Italy, the industry generates around $18 billion a year “in passenger expenditure” alone. Incredibly, this is growing faster than any other kind of tourism, too, at an average annual growth rate of 7.4 percent. North Americans, who accounted for 92.63 percent of cruisers in 1990, now account for just above 80 percent. The Caribbean is overwhelmingly popular as a cruise line destination, accounting for over 43 percent of all cruises.
Why is cruising growing so much, and so fast? The FCCA’s State of the Cruise Industry paper points out the chance to visit several locations (73 percent of cruisers responding positively, and 50 percent of non-cruisers observing from the outside), “Being Pampered” (62 percent and 45 percent) and “Getting Away From It All” (63 percent and 37 percent) as three main motivations for cruisers to pick a cruise.
