CGTN Europe discussed this and more with Eduardo Santander, Executive Director/CEO of the European Travel Commission.
Category
🎵
MusicTranscript
00:00Eduardo Santander is CEO of the European Travel Commission.
00:04Great to have you on the program.
00:06What would you say the impact's been of economic and political turbulence on foreign travel?
00:14Well, it's definitely apparent.
00:16And despite all these challenges, socio-political, geopolitical tensions,
00:20we see that European tourism is still having a strong momentum in 2025,
00:27despite all these issues.
00:29However, we observe, as you were mentioning before in the program,
00:34that there are shifts of patterns in tourism,
00:37whereas, you know, the American travelers are starting to look at Europe with different eyes
00:42with regards to cost of traveling, with regards to connectivity.
00:46And Europe is looking now more into China,
00:49into seeking the really Chinese travelers seeking for quality tourism, for responsible tourism,
00:57because we know that the Chinese travelers have also changed its mentality when it comes to travel.
01:02That shift you're talking about, Europe, is Europe becoming more popular,
01:07or is the US becoming less welcoming to foreigners?
01:11Well, I guess a little bit of both.
01:14However, what we see now is that the summer 2025 has already been booked,
01:18so there's not much of a change of pattern.
01:21We're going to have a very, very good summer in terms of numbers, in terms of arrivals, in terms of expenditure.
01:28However, Q4, it's uncertain.
01:31It's very uncertain.
01:32As long as we don't know how the American economy will be doing in the next three, four months,
01:38we will not know if American people will be able to afford travel or not.
01:42Our forecast is that it will be a drop.
01:44However, it will also depend on many other factors,
01:47as the currency exchange and connectivity between Europe and US.
01:52You mentioned that people have already booked their holidays for now,
01:56but how would you say those global tariff tensions have affected airlines,
02:00have affected hotel companies for next season?
02:04Undoubtedly, you know, the costs are going to be higher.
02:08There's a clear, tangible increase in price into Europe,
02:13whether it's the airfare or the hotel price.
02:17Inflation is also taking a lot of the savings of travelers into Europe.
02:23So we see that, you know, we are under a challenge,
02:26but this challenge also brings a lot of opportunity, you know,
02:29to reconstruct maybe a more quality-orientated tourism,
02:34a more responsible and regenerative tourism.
02:36It's interesting you talk about that opportunity to rethink the tourism model,
02:41because I wanted to talk to you about the over-tourism campaign.
02:45How do you see that maybe changing the way people travel?
02:50We absolutely, you know, see the debate.
02:53We are very much in contact with the associations that are demonstrated against,
02:57not tourism, please.
02:59It's important to underline that all these demonstrations are not against tourism or tourists.
03:04They are against a model of tourism that is maybe anachronic to the times we are living.
03:09Whereas there is a congestion in some places that are very famous, very popular,
03:16and they are congested at certain times and at certain periods of the year.
03:21We need just to manage tourism flows.
03:23We need also to listen to the civil society as they are shouting to be involved in the dialogue of the development of future tourism.
03:31Eduardo Santander at the European Travel Commission, thank you very much.
03:36Thank you very much.
03:39Thank you very much.
03:40Thank you very much.