(TAN): The European Travel Commission (ETC) and MINDHAUS, a tourism marketing agency, will launch a research project to better understand and respond to the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on travel in Europe.
MINDHAUS will provide the ETC with a series of monthly reports, monitoring sentiment for domestic and Intra-European travel through extensive market research and consumer behaviour insights.
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The Covid-19 outbreak and travel restrictions to curb the spread of the virus have had a severe impact on the European tourism sector. The scale of this crisis is unprecedented, and the impact has been felt in all European countries with visitor arrivals to Europe forecast to decline by 54%.
As European countries have eased restrictions and while the pandemic is still in progress, understanding the sentiment for domestic and intra-regional travel is critical to support European destinations in their efforts towards recovery. For this, the project will focus their research in ten high-volume European source markets, namely Germany, United Kingdom, France, Netherlands, Italy, Belgium, Switzerland, Spain, Poland and Austria. Key findings and recommendations for destinations and tourism authorities will be made available in six monthly reports starting in September.
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“Now is a crucial moment to closely monitor the shifts and trends in travel sentiment in Europe to help European destinations develop their recovery strategies. We are excited to launch this project, with MINDHAUS, which will turn into a major trend watch for the European tourism sector over the next months,” Eduardo Santander, ETC executive director, said.
Theofilos Kyratsoulis, MINDHAUS general manager, said: “It is both an honour and a recognition for our team to be working with ETC and to be supporting European destinations and the tourism sector.”