Europe’s Tourism Boom Is Slowing Down
Photo Credit: Visitors at the Blue Lagoon in Iceland, a popular tourist site. The country has seen a decline in international arrivals so far this year. Flickr / Gordon Cheung
Skift Take
Europe's pace of growth looks like it will take a step back this year. Hopefully this will coincide with a continent-wide reassessment of how it can better manage tourism.
Europe’s rapid rate of tourism growth looks set to slow down over the course of 2019 as fears of a global economic slowdown and political uncertainty start to bite.
Rather than the 6 percent growth recorded in 2018 — or indeed 8 percent in 2017 — the European Travel Commission (ETC) expects a more modest rise of around 3.5 percent in international tourist arrivals this year.
Given the time of year, it's difficult to gauge where the continent stands. Most of the countries have only reported numbers for the first few months of the year and should expect to see the bulk of their arrivals over the summer season.
Even so, there are a couple of destinations worth highlighting in the ETC's European Tourism: Trends & Prospects first-quarter report.
Montenegro — a relatively immature tourism market — leads the pack with an increase of 40.6 percent in intern
