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Tourism and the private car
Tourismand the private car
JohnWard The trend towards private car travel in tourism has continued steadily since the 1960s. The Alliance Internationale de Tourisme (AIT) provides services to a 1986 worldwide membership of 68 million. International tourism using road travel is most significant in Europe. The increasing trend is certain to continue into the 1990s and provision will have to be made for the private car user in terms of road maintenance, varied accommodation, and adequate car parking facilities and signage. Keywords: private
car; road tourism
The Alliance Internationale de Tourisme (AIT) can truly be said to be the representative of the ‘private car’ because the AIT motoring organizations (Automobile Associations, Touring and Automobile clubs) have currently in excess of 68 million members - 25 million of these are in the North American continent and 28 million are in Europe. The AIT is an organization which was created by 17 national tourist leagues in 1898, to look after their international interests in areas such as border crossings, documentation and foreign travel, and to represent them at international level. Today, the General Secretariat in Geneva, Switzerland, is a small quadrilingual unit which still carries out these functions, and, in addition, acts as a clearing house for interclub accounting and organizes meetings and study weeks on behalf of the motoring and touring club members. In 1975, the AIT was divided into four regions which were granted administrative autonomy. thus allowing the clubs from those regions to have more of a say in everyday motoring activities. Today, the AIT is a world body of 135 clubs in 87 countries, and one of its main activities is providing assistance to the road-using members, breakdown service, legal assistance and touring assistance.
World tourism
scene
Statistics in tourism are based on different one country to another especially concerning arrivals. Switzerland, for instance gave John Ward is Secretary-General Tourisme, Geneva. Switzerland.
164
of the Alliance
criteria from international up counting Internationale
de
wheels, axles, vehicles or people a long time ago as so many tourists are only ‘in transit’. Arrivals into the UK are easily established and the USA has accurate statistics for international air and sea arrivals but has less definite figures for land-border crossings north and south. So, altogether there is no complete picture, but it is possible to make rough comparisons from year to year. World figures show that international arrivals by road are basically a European phenomenon. Traffic flows between third world countries are still undeveloped for the most part and other industrialized countries like Japan and Australia are ‘insular’. But private car arrivals are important in Europe - in real terms, international arrivals have increased during 197&86 with the downturn during the recent recession now reversed.
European
car travel
The 1986 Eurosurvey brings out many important facts on holiday patterns within the 12 member countries of the European Economic Community (EEC). Of all holidays taken, an average of 67% were taken domestically. ie no border crossings, and this figure is increased where there are no border crossings by road. The mainland continent of Europe is therefore a special case as the private car user cannot travel far in any direction without crossing an international border. But statistics are taken differently in each country and while Austria and FR Germany have a great number of international frontier crossings, the figures for countries like Switzerland and France are not realistic because internationally there are many times more crossings than are recorded. The Eurosurvey shows that the car is used by the great majority of travellers for their journeys. However the majority of travellers do not drive more than 1 000 km in their pursuit of leisure, and they are mostly in search of sun. The Mid-European industrialized nations send many millions of tourists and travellers in every direction but especially south, every year, whereas there is a far lower density of traffic out of the Mediterranean countries. Taking the Netherlands as an example. it is known that 65% of the Dutch population over 15 years of age takes a holiday, and that 61% of these take a holiday abroad. Car travel accounts for 85% of domestic tourism and 68% of
0261-5177/87/020164-02$03.00
0
1987 Butterworth & Co (Publishers)
Ltd
Tourism and rhe private car
outbound tourism. Apart from the private car, the road is obviously used by coaches, motorbikes and even bicycles. In the UK the pattern is changing. Of UK residents travelling around the country 69% use their own car whereas a further 12% use a hired car, bus or coach - the train takes as much as 12% of the market. However, only 14% of the British take their car abroad for their holidays. The problem of having to cross water to leave one’s country affects islands like the UK as well as countries such as Norway and Sweden. However another factor is the actual distance to be travelled, and although statistics are vague in this area, a recent Belgian survey showed that 78% of Belgians going on holiday travel no further than 1 000 km and only 2% travel further than 1 500 km. In FR Germany, 57% of the population currently take a journey of five days or longer and 66% of these go abroad, 60% travelling by car. In Austria, the figures are even more dramatic - over 93% of all arrivals by foreigners into Austria are by road.
Non-European
car travel
Moving outside Europe, in the USA, private car travel accounts for approximately 80% of domestic travel which means that all other modes of transport (air, bus, rail and cruise-ship) account altogether for the remaining 20%. In 1979, the average trip distance in the USA was estimated to be 580 miles (about 900 km). In the USA, it is interesting to note that the estimation for the long week-end of 4 July 1986 was for 40 million people taking a trip of 100 or more miles away from home with 85% of those travelling by private car - an 11% increase over the 1985 figure. In New Zealand 79% of people travel by car on domestic holiday trips and a further 8% by bus.
Car tourism infrastructure The Eurosurvey shows that 73% of holidaymakers stayed in the same place and 26% stayed in several places. On arrival at the tourism destination or on tour, the private car user looks for various types of accommodation camping and caravanning sites, private accommodation in rented or owned property, motel, hotel, and guest-house accommodation. About 16% of the market actually goes on camping and caravanning holidays, 32% stay in a hotel, motel or guest-house, 21% stay with parents or friends, and 17% rent accommodation. Travel agencies Another interesting fact to come out of the Eurosurvey report concerns the method of booking - 75% of all holiday bookings are made by the individual, without going through a travel agency or even their club or association. This figure is an average for the 12 countries of the EEC but in fact 22% of the UK and the Irish market and 21% of the West German market do in fact book
TOURISM MANAGEMENT
June 1987
through travel agencies. However in the southern countries, Greece. Spain, Italy and Portugal, over 90% of holiday-makers plan their own trips, and few use the services of travel agents. The holiday market is highly seasonal - for Europe. 62% of the main holidays are taken in the two months of July and August with a further 20% in June and September, and the remaining 18% being taken in the other eight months. Car population The total number of cars on the road in the world and within Europe has been increasing at a steady rate since the beginning of the 1960s. If growth continues at the same rate we shall see some 100 million cars on the world roads at the beginning of the 1990s - 165 million in Europe. With the increase in the number of cars on the roads, improvements in the road infrastructure must be carried out everywhere. Road infrastructure includes not only the roads themselves but also the service areas, information points, sign-posting as well as caravan sites, historical monuments, museums, hotels, restaurants, etc. One area of improvement must be in the information available along the roadside to enable the motorist tourist to plan the continuation of his trip. There is often better information given in airports and railway stations than that available to the road-user despite the disparity in numbers. The EEC has a project called Drive which is a proposed computerized information system that will be available in vehicles travelling along the roads of Europe. The aim is to communicate information to vehicles from strategically placed communication centres. The car of today is already sophisticated, efficient and technically advanced. The car radio and onboard computer are both available in most cars and they form the basic infrastructure for such a futuristic computerized information system. The modern car does not break down as easily as in the past, consumes far less fuel per kilometre driven, is considerably less polluting and gives a far more comfortable drive than cars of the past generations, thus the car’s performance is improved and the distances that can be travelled are increased.
Future developments In addition to this modernization of the car, and to the improvements in infrastructure, it is possible that we shall see changes in holiday patterns, eg longer holiday periods, which would allow people to drive further than they are currently prepared to do. If this happens, the economics of driving a car compared to travelling by air and rail can be expected to increase the share of road travel even beyond the high level it has reached in 1986. All the facts and figures of the past, recent past and present would only seem to emphasize a trend in favour of road travel. The private car will remain by far the most important mode of transport for tourists in the 1990s.
165
JohnWard The trend towards private car travel in tourism has continued steadily since the 1960s. The Alliance Internationale de Tourisme (AIT) provides services to a 1986 worldwide membership of 68 million. International tourism using road travel is most significant in Europe. The increasing trend is certain to continue into the 1990s and provision will have to be made for the private car user in terms of road maintenance, varied accommodation, and adequate car parking facilities and signage. Keywords: private
car; road tourism
The Alliance Internationale de Tourisme (AIT) can truly be said to be the representative of the ‘private car’ because the AIT motoring organizations (Automobile Associations, Touring and Automobile clubs) have currently in excess of 68 million members - 25 million of these are in the North American continent and 28 million are in Europe. The AIT is an organization which was created by 17 national tourist leagues in 1898, to look after their international interests in areas such as border crossings, documentation and foreign travel, and to represent them at international level. Today, the General Secretariat in Geneva, Switzerland, is a small quadrilingual unit which still carries out these functions, and, in addition, acts as a clearing house for interclub accounting and organizes meetings and study weeks on behalf of the motoring and touring club members. In 1975, the AIT was divided into four regions which were granted administrative autonomy. thus allowing the clubs from those regions to have more of a say in everyday motoring activities. Today, the AIT is a world body of 135 clubs in 87 countries, and one of its main activities is providing assistance to the road-using members, breakdown service, legal assistance and touring assistance.
World tourism
scene
Statistics in tourism are based on different one country to another especially concerning arrivals. Switzerland, for instance gave John Ward is Secretary-General Tourisme, Geneva. Switzerland.
164
of the Alliance
criteria from international up counting Internationale
de
wheels, axles, vehicles or people a long time ago as so many tourists are only ‘in transit’. Arrivals into the UK are easily established and the USA has accurate statistics for international air and sea arrivals but has less definite figures for land-border crossings north and south. So, altogether there is no complete picture, but it is possible to make rough comparisons from year to year. World figures show that international arrivals by road are basically a European phenomenon. Traffic flows between third world countries are still undeveloped for the most part and other industrialized countries like Japan and Australia are ‘insular’. But private car arrivals are important in Europe - in real terms, international arrivals have increased during 197&86 with the downturn during the recent recession now reversed.
European
car travel
The 1986 Eurosurvey brings out many important facts on holiday patterns within the 12 member countries of the European Economic Community (EEC). Of all holidays taken, an average of 67% were taken domestically. ie no border crossings, and this figure is increased where there are no border crossings by road. The mainland continent of Europe is therefore a special case as the private car user cannot travel far in any direction without crossing an international border. But statistics are taken differently in each country and while Austria and FR Germany have a great number of international frontier crossings, the figures for countries like Switzerland and France are not realistic because internationally there are many times more crossings than are recorded. The Eurosurvey shows that the car is used by the great majority of travellers for their journeys. However the majority of travellers do not drive more than 1 000 km in their pursuit of leisure, and they are mostly in search of sun. The Mid-European industrialized nations send many millions of tourists and travellers in every direction but especially south, every year, whereas there is a far lower density of traffic out of the Mediterranean countries. Taking the Netherlands as an example. it is known that 65% of the Dutch population over 15 years of age takes a holiday, and that 61% of these take a holiday abroad. Car travel accounts for 85% of domestic tourism and 68% of
0261-5177/87/020164-02$03.00
0
1987 Butterworth & Co (Publishers)
Ltd
Tourism and rhe private car
outbound tourism. Apart from the private car, the road is obviously used by coaches, motorbikes and even bicycles. In the UK the pattern is changing. Of UK residents travelling around the country 69% use their own car whereas a further 12% use a hired car, bus or coach - the train takes as much as 12% of the market. However, only 14% of the British take their car abroad for their holidays. The problem of having to cross water to leave one’s country affects islands like the UK as well as countries such as Norway and Sweden. However another factor is the actual distance to be travelled, and although statistics are vague in this area, a recent Belgian survey showed that 78% of Belgians going on holiday travel no further than 1 000 km and only 2% travel further than 1 500 km. In FR Germany, 57% of the population currently take a journey of five days or longer and 66% of these go abroad, 60% travelling by car. In Austria, the figures are even more dramatic - over 93% of all arrivals by foreigners into Austria are by road.
Non-European
car travel
Moving outside Europe, in the USA, private car travel accounts for approximately 80% of domestic travel which means that all other modes of transport (air, bus, rail and cruise-ship) account altogether for the remaining 20%. In 1979, the average trip distance in the USA was estimated to be 580 miles (about 900 km). In the USA, it is interesting to note that the estimation for the long week-end of 4 July 1986 was for 40 million people taking a trip of 100 or more miles away from home with 85% of those travelling by private car - an 11% increase over the 1985 figure. In New Zealand 79% of people travel by car on domestic holiday trips and a further 8% by bus.
Car tourism infrastructure The Eurosurvey shows that 73% of holidaymakers stayed in the same place and 26% stayed in several places. On arrival at the tourism destination or on tour, the private car user looks for various types of accommodation camping and caravanning sites, private accommodation in rented or owned property, motel, hotel, and guest-house accommodation. About 16% of the market actually goes on camping and caravanning holidays, 32% stay in a hotel, motel or guest-house, 21% stay with parents or friends, and 17% rent accommodation. Travel agencies Another interesting fact to come out of the Eurosurvey report concerns the method of booking - 75% of all holiday bookings are made by the individual, without going through a travel agency or even their club or association. This figure is an average for the 12 countries of the EEC but in fact 22% of the UK and the Irish market and 21% of the West German market do in fact book
TOURISM MANAGEMENT
June 1987
through travel agencies. However in the southern countries, Greece. Spain, Italy and Portugal, over 90% of holiday-makers plan their own trips, and few use the services of travel agents. The holiday market is highly seasonal - for Europe. 62% of the main holidays are taken in the two months of July and August with a further 20% in June and September, and the remaining 18% being taken in the other eight months. Car population The total number of cars on the road in the world and within Europe has been increasing at a steady rate since the beginning of the 1960s. If growth continues at the same rate we shall see some 100 million cars on the world roads at the beginning of the 1990s - 165 million in Europe. With the increase in the number of cars on the roads, improvements in the road infrastructure must be carried out everywhere. Road infrastructure includes not only the roads themselves but also the service areas, information points, sign-posting as well as caravan sites, historical monuments, museums, hotels, restaurants, etc. One area of improvement must be in the information available along the roadside to enable the motorist tourist to plan the continuation of his trip. There is often better information given in airports and railway stations than that available to the road-user despite the disparity in numbers. The EEC has a project called Drive which is a proposed computerized information system that will be available in vehicles travelling along the roads of Europe. The aim is to communicate information to vehicles from strategically placed communication centres. The car of today is already sophisticated, efficient and technically advanced. The car radio and onboard computer are both available in most cars and they form the basic infrastructure for such a futuristic computerized information system. The modern car does not break down as easily as in the past, consumes far less fuel per kilometre driven, is considerably less polluting and gives a far more comfortable drive than cars of the past generations, thus the car’s performance is improved and the distances that can be travelled are increased.
Future developments In addition to this modernization of the car, and to the improvements in infrastructure, it is possible that we shall see changes in holiday patterns, eg longer holiday periods, which would allow people to drive further than they are currently prepared to do. If this happens, the economics of driving a car compared to travelling by air and rail can be expected to increase the share of road travel even beyond the high level it has reached in 1986. All the facts and figures of the past, recent past and present would only seem to emphasize a trend in favour of road travel. The private car will remain by far the most important mode of transport for tourists in the 1990s.
165